[78-L] One person's opinions...?!^

[Tom]

Bud,
 
Why do you have a problem referring to people of color in a manner consistent with the way in which they'd like to be referred to? Do you gain some kind of psychic gratification by referring to a person of color as "black" when he'd prefer you use the term "African American" instead?
 
Are the once-in-a-generation word changes too much for you to accept? Is it that deep down inside you just don't like African Americans, but can't really do anything much to disempower them, so you have to find small ways in which to try to demean others who you feel are taking an unfair piece of your pie?
 
Just curious, really.
 
Tom


--- On Sat, 1/24/09, Bud Black <banjobud at cfl.rr.com> wrote:

From: Bud Black <banjobud at cfl.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [78-L] One person's opinions...?!^
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Saturday, January 24, 2009, 2:52 PM

Question:  If an American person of color cannot trace their roots back to
Africa, are they still "African-American?"

Bud 
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Julian Vein
Date: 1/24/2009 1:11:05 AM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] One person's opinions...?!^
 
Tom wrote:
> Why is it that some people have a problem referring to people of color the
way they would like to be referred to?
>
> The word "negro" was the correct word choice for decades, until
the end of
the civil rights era in the 1960's. So that word -- the word
"negro" -- had
been correct for, oh I dunno, 350 years or so. At about that time, most
African Americans wanted to be called "black" instead. That lasted
for a few
decades. Now most African Americans prefer to be referred to as, well,
African Americans.
>
> Listen to how role models within that community refer to themselves --
people like President Obama and Oprah Winfrey, for instance, refer to
themselves as African American.
>
> We're talking once-in-a-generation changes in word choice here.
>
> So why is that so problematic for some people to understand?
----------------------
I seem to recall that there have been several name changes over the decades:
 
Coloured people.
People of colour.
Negro.
Black.
African American.
 
These are names that have been used by those people themselves or, more
probably, their self-appointed leaders (usually people who wish to climb
to power on the backs of discontented--in this case--black workers). Is
African American the final word?
 
      Julian Vein
 
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