Dean Esmay ponders the use of the term “black” as opposed to “negro” when referring to Americans whose ancestry can be traced to Africa.
Okay, first off, I want to make it clear that I have no agenda behind this question. Honestly, I don’t.
In the early 1970s, certain folks decided that the polite way to refer to people of African descent with dark skin and curly hair was “black.” Before that, you would (if you weren’t rude) refer to a white person as “caucasian” and a black person as “negro.” That was just the way people talked. But that became unaccepable, and after that we would refer to pale-skinned Europeans as “white” and dark-skinned Africans as “black.”
But am I the only one who thinks this was a bad move?
“Black.” To me this is a bad word. Black is a negative color. If I’m in a black mood I’m angry. If I indulge in black humor I’m being cynical about the human race. If I’m wearing black clothes, it’s because I’m in mourning. If you study physics, you learn that black is the absence of color. Basically, black is a negative.
So why would anyone want to be a “black person?”
One of the very first things that a Filipino bound for the United States is advised is to never say the word “negro” (pronounced NEH-gro), and to instead use “African-American.” As noted in Dean’s comments, some people object to the term: many, many dark-skinned Americans whose ancestry is from Africa — “black people,” although Dean may find the term objectionable — hardly carry dual nationalities in this country and one from that continent. In fact, two of my favorite African-Americans are light-skinned: one for his guns and the other for her money.
Whether the term “negro” (pronounced NEE-grow) stands a chance of gaining non-derisive common use, I do not know. I know for a fact that Hispanics and Caucasian Spanish still refer to black people as short-e “negro,” with little to no racist connotation. These days Filipinos I know refer to black people with the other word for black in Filipino: “itim,” which has roots more in the Tagalog dialect than from the adopted Spanish word for “black.” NEH-gro is simply the Spanish word for “black,” and while I have no knowledge of the history for the term NEE-grow, I’ll guess that it stems from the Anglo/Caucasian difficulty to pronounce words with the kind of syncopated syllabic pronunciations that Spanish and Filipino have.
The comments to Dean’s post are also very informative, and add perspective to the semantics of color. My little tidbit all the way from here: white roses are for the terminally ill and the dead; white clothes are worn at Chinese funerals. Negativity exists for every color. Not just black.
For the record I wouldn’t be caught alive using “negro” in any of its lingual permutations in regular discourse, and limit its use to meta-examinations of discourse and language. “Black person” does well for now, although Steven Malcolm Anderson leaves a much more romantic statement that does well for me: I love that old word “Negro” (with a capital “N”). It has a look and sound of nobility and dignity. I love what it connotes. It was used during the ages when the “civil rights” movement really did stand for equality before the law, for justice, for individual freedom and dignity. I love the very fact that is so archaic and “square”. The style. Negro.
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