Latest on "negro"

[Jonathan Lighter]

An older black sportscaster on CNN (sorry I didn't get his name) mentions a
team owner "who used the word 'colored' to me. To me. So you can imagine
what he must have said when I wasn't there."

I report, you decide.

JL


On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Latest on "negro"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Bundy's use of the definite article - as though all "Negroes" are the same
> - undoubtedly was a factor in revealing him to be, as a Democrat put it
> this morning, an "uber-racist." (To me that means Himmler level, but let it
> go.)
>
> No one I've heard on TV has had the linguistic discernment to mention
> Bundy's use of the "'the'-word." They quite clearly feel or believe or
> "know" that "Negro" itself is "offensive."
>
> And don't forget: "persons of color" is respectful, but "colored people" is
> offensive. "Colored persons" is, I would think, more offensive yet.
>
>
> JL
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: Latest on "negro"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Apr 27, 2014, at 12:26 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > > At 4/26/2014 11:54 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock wrote:
> > >> I thought it was just that as we become accustomed to words, they
> > >> become more objectifying? So, we change the approved terminology
> > >> from time to time in an effort to keep the meaning clean?
> > >> --
> > >> Kate
> > >
> > > I wonder if this has been argued, or discussed, by anyone who has
> > > written on the historical evolution of the terms that were used to
> > > refer to African-Americans (either by others or by themselves)?
> >
> > So this would be an instance of the "euphemism treadmill" (named by
> > Pinker, but described in much the same terms by Cicero)?
> >
> > LH
> > >
> > > One author who examines the history is Patrick Rael, in "Black
> > > Identity & Black Protest in the Antebellum North (Chapel Hill:
> > > University of North Carolina Press, 2002) and in his Introduction to
> > > "African-American Activism before the Civil War: The Freedom Struggle
> > > in the Antebellum North (New York: Routeledge, 2008).
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > >
> > >> On Apr 26, 2014, at 8:01 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > >>
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> > >> -----------------------
> > >> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > >> > Subject:      Re: Latest on "negro"
> > >> >
> > >>
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >> >
> > >> > On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> > >> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> > >> >
> > >> >> Nobody explained why "the 'Negro' word" was bad
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> > In like manner, nobody has explained why "African-American" is
> "good"
> > and
> > >> > not simply ridiculous.
> > >> >
> > >> > I've decided to go with what's on my birth certificate: "colored,"
> > with
> > >> > "black" reserved for formal occasions, such as the Census. Like, why
> > not?
> > >> > I'm even considering punting BE for n[egro]d[ialect], as accurate a
> > >> > denomination as any other.
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> > --
> > >> > -Wilson
> > >> > -----
> > >> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> > to
> > >> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > >> > -Mark Twain
> > >> >
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>
>
> --
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