Quote:
Originally Posted by mercedesjin
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.
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I agree entirely on "nigger" as there really is no place it can be used without being offensive...
However, about "negro" - I think you should contact these places, apparently they haven`t received the bulletin.
UNCF
The Official Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League Website
African American Women's Organization | National Council of Negro Women | NCNW
National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. Official Website
National Association of Negro Business & Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. | A Mighty River
And those are just the first Google page.
I agree that the term "negro" can be and often is used in a derogatory manner. However, I disagree that it is always meant to be so - if that were the case these would be horrible groups!
I took the action I saw fit (contacting the user) in regard to the term`s use. The end.