'Negro' on Census Form Offends Some.....

Bear said:
well the way I see this debate is that a term acceptable for all should be agreed upon. African-Americans does not fit all black people. There are black Jamaicans, there are black NZ's *forget the term they have over there* there are black aussie's and the list goes on and on and on. I can't see a black aussie wanting to check that he/she is African-American. So we really really really do need to start finding terms that are acceptable to all.
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New Zealanders... you're thinking Moari, but the "black" group you're referring to are from the Solomon Islands, Papua, and so on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanesians). Anyway, there are dark-skinned people that resemble African ethnicity in Southeast Asia as well.
 
no it isn't the proper term in my opinion. i would rather be called half black or half jamaican to be more precise than half negro i find it degrading and insulting
 
AliciaM said:
I find the word negro or colored offensive as it is an old school term. Just like chink is rude just like cracker...it shouldn't be used it doesn't matter what color but african-american or black should suffice in my opinion negro should not be on the census
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I wanna be called a cracker. I'm offended it's not on the census sheet!
 
AliciaM said:
beside black is technically not a color its a shade ;)
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Where did you get that info-just curious. As far as anyone knows-black is officially a color. It may in fact be listed as a shade as well-but it is in fact a color.
 
Jiro said:
well.... Abraham Lincoln got elected..... he was a sissy scrawny man with a silly-ass hat.... and he was mocked as a hilly-billy poor boy. I mean.... this man was against a seasoned fat cat so....
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LMAO, You need to post your souces for this-I've never heard this before.
 
AliciaM said:
no it isn't the proper term in my opinion. i would rather be called half black or half jamaican to be more precise than half negro i find it degrading and insulting
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I dont ever say it....just like I don't ever call anyone any kind of names.

It's hurtful....

Had too many said to me so I know how it feels.
 
I've been listening to and watching historical footage about Martin Luther King Jr. today on TV. In almost all his speeches, he says, "Negro". Apparently MLK didn't find the term offensive. It was also the word used during all the 1960's news broadcasts. The news broadcasters were very careful even then to use the politically correct terms.
 
Reba said:
I've been listening to and watching historical footage about Martin Luther King Jr. today on TV. In almost all his speeches, he says, "Negro". Apparently MLK didn't find the term offensive. It was also the word used during all the 1960's news broadcasts. The news broadcasters were very careful even then to use the politically correct terms.
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Language changes with the times. "Deaf-and-dumb" and "deaf-mute" were used all the time in those days too, but that doesn't mean they're not offensive terms today.
 
Reba said:
I've been listening to and watching historical footage about Martin Luther King Jr. today on TV. In almost all his speeches, he says, "Negro". Apparently MLK didn't find the term offensive. It was also the word used during all the 1960's news broadcasts. The news broadcasters were very careful even then to use the politically correct terms.
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In MLK's "I hava a dream" speech he mentioned "negro" 15 times.

HPOL Record Transcript
 
Bill Cosby in 2008:

While many comics were using the growing freedom of that decade to explore controversial, sometimes risqué material, Cosby was making his reputation with humorous recollections of his childhood. Many Americans wondered about the absence of race as a topic in Cosby's stories. As Cosby's success grew he had to defend his choice of material regularly; as he argued,
"A white person listens to my act and he laughs and he thinks, 'Yeah, that's the way I see it too.' Okay. He's white. I'm Negro. And we both see things the same way. That must mean that we are alike… So I figure I'm doing as much for good race relations as the next guy."
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[9]
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Cosby, Bill
 
Beowulf said:
He wouldn't say that today, I am sure. Otherwise he would call his phone a Negroberry. :P
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Over 50,000 people wrote in "negro" on their 2000 Census form to describe their race which was one of the reason why the 2010 Census had a new option "negro" to choose from.
 
kokonut said:
In MLK's "I hava a dream" speech he mentioned "negro" 15 times.

HPOL Record Transcript
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Again, this was forty-seven years ago. Language changes, especially politically-charged terminology. Not to mention it was also being spoken by a black person, and was being used within a speech asking for racial integration.
 
kokonut said:
Over 50,000 people wrote in "negro" on their 2000 Census form to describe their race which was one of the reason why the 2010 Census had a new option "negro" to choose from.
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1) 50,000 people out of how many?

2) How old were these people? Chances are they are grandparents and older parents.

3) Context. Who was saying it? Dr. King, in a speech about the integration of races. This is a very different context from a 2010 consensus forum.
 
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