L.A. riots: Good Samaritan remembers his scary truck-driver rescue

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Waterboy said:
Who said it was a PC term? Since when has Caucasion ever been used to degrade or oppress?
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Caucasian (check spelling) is more PC than whitey, honkey, cracker, white devil, white bread, etc.

However, my point was that at one time, especially during the '50s and '60s, the pc polite terms for black and white were Negro and Caucasian. Then, during the '60s, Afro-American and black became more popular.
 
Reba said:
Caucasian (check spelling) is more PC than whitey, honkey, cracker, white devil, white bread, etc.

However, my point was that at one time, especially during the '50s and '60s, the pc polite terms for black and white were Negro and Caucasian. Then, during the '60s, Afro-American and black became more popular.
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No, the PC terms were Negro and white. You don't hear many white people referred to as Caucasions except in a formal sense in maybe anthropology or something.

Yeah, and negro was more PC than jungle bunny, cotton picker, tar baby, pickaninny, and Aunt Jemima. What's your point? Now it is patronizing and insulting.

Is Caucasion insulting? When has it ever been used to oppress? Negro has been.

The signs never said "Caucasions only." They said "Whites only." And they also said, "No Negroes allowed."
 
Black author and linguist, John McWhorter:

It’d be one thing if it were a hundred years ago and lots of black people still had parents who had been born into slavery and grandparents who actually “spoke African,” as it was sometimes put. But this is a very different time.

A possible objection, I imagine, is that native-born blacks are African in a “different” way than actual African immigrants–but this would be a feint rather than an argument: clearly, the proper formulation, if we are to put it on the table, is that native-born blacks are African to a much lesser extent than African immigrants. In truth, a black man from Jacksonville has more in common with a white one from Tucson than he does with a man three years out of Senegal.

And I would argue that native-born blacks are so vastly less “African” than actual Africans that calling ourselves “African American” is not only illogical but almost disrespectful to African immigrants.
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Rethinking 'African-American' - NYTimes.com
 
kokonut said:
Oh brother...(not you reba).
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You object to a Black man saying that it is illogical and disrespectful to call Black Americans African American? Who do you think should make that decision if Black Americans shouldn't?
 
Waterboy said:
You object to a Black man saying that it is illogical and disrespectful to call Black Americans African American? Who do you think should make that decision if Black Americans shouldn't?
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See post #176.
 
Remembering the LA riots: A teachable moment





Erica Ayisi, NBC News writes

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots and the first time I heard race being discussed on television. I was 10.

The year before, I had watched the Rodney King beating on the news with my parents. I knew that white police officers went to court for nearly beating a black man to death. My mother's reaction to the verdict was telling.

I was precocious enough to know that since the white police officers were "acquitted" it meant that they had essentially gotten away with committing a horrible crime. The L.A. riots ensued, and I watched. I recall wondering if the burning buildings, broken windows, random acts of violence within violence were going to spread to my hometown. I wondered what would have happened if there wasn't a videotape of the beating. I imagined the reactions of both blacks and whites had the verdict been different.

had so many questions about the L.A. riots and why the police officers were acquitted. As an 11-year-old African American girl in small-town Massachusetts, I wondered if my race made me a second-class citizen. The notion that children are color
blind is debatable, but when an event such as the Rodney King beating and subsequent L.A. riots play out on the evening news, children are forced to think about race in a different way.

My parents used this opportunity as a teachable moment on race. We had several conversations about the L.A. riots and all of the subtopics that come with it -- police relations within the black community, poverty, justice (or lack thereof). They used language that was appropriate for my age. My dad asked me how I felt about the police officers not going to jail for what they did and if I thought the people should riot. I distinctly recall my mom asking if my friends at school were talking about the case. We had a dialogue. I knew my thoughts mattered.

That conversation cultivated my fearless passion to discuss race with people outside of my family. Since then, I've had numerous conversations about race with people from all walks of life to breakdown stereotypes and learn new perspectives.

The L.A. riots were a moment for my parents to capitalize on a conversation about race. And it is only through this conversation that Rodney King’s famous question can be answered: "Can’t we all just get along?" Not only are precocious 11-year-olds watching the news, but they are also listening and waiting for adults to facilitate positive conversations around race relations. Don't change the channel. Instead, talk about it.


The Daily Nightly - Remembering the LA riots: A teachable moment

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Waterboy said:
No, the PC terms were Negro and white. You don't hear many white people referred to as Caucasions except in a formal sense in maybe anthropology or something.
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(Spelled Caucasians) Not now but back in the mid-20th century the terms were commonly used.

Yeah, and negro was more PC than jungle bunny, cotton picker, tar baby, pickaninny, and Aunt Jemima. What's your point? Now it is patronizing and insulting.
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For one thing, Negro was capitalized, not lower case. It's a proper noun.

Caucasian, Negro, and Mongoloid are all three pretty much obsolete now. They used to be race classifications but that idea is pretty outdated now.

NAACP and other black organizations still use Negro. Martin Luther King used the word Negro.

Is Caucasion insulting? When has it ever been used to oppress? Negro has been.

The signs never said "Caucasions only." They said "Whites only." And they also said, "No Negroes allowed."
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The word Negro itself didn't start out as an oppressive term.

Suppose the signs had said "No African-Americans allowed" or "No Blacks allowed"?

As I recall, there were signs that said "No Colored allowed" and "Colored Waiting Room."
 
Reba said:
(Spelled Caucasians) Not now but back in the mid-20th century the terms were commonly used.


For one thing, Negro was capitalized, not lower case. It's a proper noun.

Caucasian, Negro, and Mongoloid are all three pretty much obsolete now. They used to be race classifications but that idea is pretty outdated now.

NAACP and other black organizations still use Negro. Martin Luther King used the word Negro.


The word Negro itself didn't start out as an oppressive term.

Suppose the signs had said "No African-Americans allowed" or "No Blacks allowed"?

As I recall, there were signs that said "No Colored allowed" and "Colored Waiting Room."
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What an horrible era.
 
As far back as I can remmy...they were "colored people"...Then Negro's...then Blacks...then Africian-Americans....Seems to me that those who chose to be called Africian-Americans, it made them sound more "sophisticated". But seriously, if someone asked me "were they white...black...Asian"?...and if they were indeed the color of Black, I would say, they were Black. It's their choice what label they want to be used, tho'.
 
If you use APA format so it is best to say African American rather than just black/Black people.
 
Waterboy said:
No, he used the lower case letter because he was using AP style. Like I said earlier, had he been using another format for another type of publication, he would have used the format of that other style. For instance, MLA, Chicago, or AMA, or APA. It would be incorrect NOT to use a capital when using the word Black to refer to a person in many other styles. It depends on the style you have to use for the publication you are writing for. And editors and proof readers will change it if it does not adhere to the style of the publication. Newspapers, etc. use AP style.
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The other author you quoted stated specifically that he ignored the AP style. Apparently you can go against style at some sites.

If you were writing for publication in a newspaper would you abide by the AP style?
 
Waterboy said:
Remembering the LA riots: A teachable moment
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What is your personal memory of the riots? What did you think when you saw Rodney King and Reginald Denny attacked? Were you afraid of the riots spreading to your neighborhood?
 
Reba said:
(Spelled Caucasians) Not now but back in the mid-20th century the terms were commonly used.


For one thing, Negro was capitalized, not lower case. It's a proper noun.

Caucasian, Negro, and Mongoloid are all three pretty much obsolete now. They used to be race classifications but that idea is pretty outdated now.

NAACP and other black organizations still use Negro. Martin Luther King used the word Negro.


The word Negro itself didn't start out as an oppressive term.

Suppose the signs had said "No African-Americans allowed" or "No Blacks allowed"?

As I recall, there were signs that said "No Colored allowed" and "Colored Waiting Room."
Click to expand...

The NAACP was started in 1909. Colored people was the term used then. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. Most people still used Negro in 1968. Black and Afro American were just starting to be used, and many considered the terms to be radicals. MLK tried to reach the masses. It makes sense he would use terms and language that white people would accept and not be afraid of.

Negro was used to identfy people who were not white. By identifying them as not white, it meant not giving them the rights that white people had. So it was used to oppress. And to separate.

Some used colored, some used negro. Either way, it was a way to separate and treat people as less human than white skinned people. Still oppressive. Bad history associated with those words.

IF the signs had said "No African Americans" allowed or "No Blacks allowed" then we would be looking at different history associated with those words. But reality is, those are not the words used, and those words don't have the same history of oppression tied to them as negro and colored do.
 
I guess everyone wants to stay on the topic of what white people think Black people should be called and why Black people associate certain words with negative treatment and history in America instead of talking about Rodney King. I tried to take it back to King, but no one seems interested.
 
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