Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I think it is unfortunate when any word, regardless of history, is used to insult a person or group of people.
I also feel it is unfortunate when a word`s meaning is gradually changed over time to something offensive due to usage - making that word impossible to be used without offense.
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I'm so happy you posted. Can we talk about why the word "negro" is offensive, please?
Rewind: 1960s, when "colored" and "negro" was used casually in day-to-day life. My mother is from this era, and she grew up using the word "negro." She also grew up in a time when she couldn't use the same water fountains or bathrooms or go to the same schools as white children.
That was then. To call another person a "negro" brings in the idea that the person is inferior, and shouldn't be able to use water fountains or bathrooms or go to the same schools as white people. To say that I'm a negro takes me back to "then," when I didn't have the same rights - when people didn't think I should have the same rights.
Now, I do. Now I'm (basically) seen as an equal human being. I'm black, a person of African descent. To say I'm a "negro" is extremely offensive and derogatory, and it's not just me and my paranoia. It's a cultural thing, across the USA. (Except for wherever it is the KKK and the Neo-Nazis dwell.)
Okay. I just had to get that off of my chest. I personally don't think that it's a bad thing a word comes with historic connotations, and that its meaning can be changed over the generations. I personally wouldn't want to be referred to as a nigger. While at one point it was used to refer to the entire black population, originally it was a white slave owner's little pet.
I'm not a white slave owner's little pet.