Skip to main content

What happened to the thread that began yesterday on this topic? If it was removed, WHY?

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...ncluded-census-form/

'The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.'

'When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.'

'And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.'

'An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.' - Thomas Jefferson

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

quote:
Originally posted by dogsoldier0513:
What happened to the thread that began yesterday on this topic? If it was removed, WHY?

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...ncluded-census-form/


An old, traditional and non-pejorative ethnic descriptor "is a terrible thing to waste."

"In 1943, Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, president of what is now Tuskegee University, urged his fellow black college presidents to raise money collectively through an "appeal to the national conscience." The next year, on April 25, 1944, Dr. Patterson, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and others incorporated the UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND [caps supplied] with 27 member colleges. Early supporters of the UNCF included President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. That first effort raised $760,000, a sum that would be worth approximately $8.6 million today."

Should this fine, proud, old organization forsake its long-established name for the sake of someone's notion of political correctness?

http://www.uncf.org/history/default.asp
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by dogsoldier0513:
What happened to the thread that began yesterday on this topic? If it was removed, WHY?

http://www.foxnews.com/politic...ncluded-census-form/


An old, traditional and non-pejorative ethnic descriptor "is a terrible thing to waste."

"In 1943, Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, president of what is now Tuskegee University, urged his fellow black college presidents to raise money collectively through an "appeal to the national conscience." The next year, on April 25, 1944, Dr. Patterson, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and others incorporated the UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND [caps supplied] with 27 member colleges. Early supporters of the UNCF included President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. That first effort raised $760,000, a sum that would be worth approximately $8.6 million today."

Should this fine, proud, old organization forsake its long-established name for the sake of someone's notion of political correctness?

http://www.uncf.org/history/default.asp


Good point. (I can't believe I agree with beternU!) Wink
It can definitely be considered a slur depending on how it's used, but it's not such an offensive word by itself that it can't be used in some contexts, usually for historical reasons. Anyway, it's interesting that it made it onto the census questionnaire , but I guess I buy the Census Bureau's explanation. I mean, someone had to have brought it to their attention that they wanted that option on the form, and I doubt it was racist white people.
quote:
Originally posted by TheMeInTeam:
I think "black" is a perfectly acceptable, neutral term, just like white. "Negro," on the other hand, hasn't been used since when black people were second-class citizens and subject to all kinds of injustices, so using it today instantly brings up those memories. Better off leaving it in the past.


Tell that to the United Negro College Fund. Tell it to those who still revere the memory of the old Negro League and its truly great Negro athletes. baseball players.

My guess is that you are under 40. Am I right?
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by TheMeInTeam:
I think "black" is a perfectly acceptable, neutral term, just like white. "Negro," on the other hand, hasn't been used since when black people were second-class citizens and subject to all kinds of injustices, so using it today instantly brings up those memories. Better off leaving it in the past.


Tell that to the United Negro College Fund. Tell it to those who still revere the memory of the old Negro League and its truly great Negro athletes. baseball players.

My guess is that you are under 40. Am I right?


I've already said that's it's not offensive in historical contexts like that. I was talking about the term in everyday use as a replacement for "black" or "African-American."
quote:
Originally posted by TheMeInTeam:
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by TheMeInTeam:
I think "black" is a perfectly acceptable, neutral term, just like white. "Negro," on the other hand, hasn't been used since when black people were second-class citizens and subject to all kinds of injustices, so using it today instantly brings up those memories. Better off leaving it in the past.


Tell that to the United Negro College Fund. Tell it to those who still revere the memory of the old Negro League and its truly great Negro athletes. baseball players.

My guess is that you are under 40. Am I right?


I've already said that's it's not offensive in historical contexts like that. I was talking about the term in everyday use as a replacement for "black" or "African-American."


News for you: The United Negro College Fund exists not only in an "historical context"; it is alive and active today.
quote:
Originally posted by TheMeInTeam:
But it was founded in 1944. Whatever. This is my last post in this thread, because it seems like you're deliberately misunderstanding my posts.


I am deliberately making logical good sense. The United Negro College Fund exists not only in historical context, but exists in a CONTEMPORARY context as well. What YOU seem not to comprehend is that there are ethnic descriptors, including "Negro" that have "historic contexts," but some of them also have contemporary applicability and uses. Tell the UNCF that they need to purge the term, "Negro" from their web pages and fund-raising literature and see how far you get with that.
quote:
Originally posted by Tenn on my mind:
Guess UNCF is thrilled to have BTU, on their side. Nothing like a know-it-all, white dude taking up their cause.


And thus concludes your utterly worthless non-contribution to this dialogue. Are you such a know-none-of-it that you can post only spiteful and useless drivel? Your offering thus far would seem to confirm that.
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by Tenn on my mind:
Guess UNCF is thrilled to have BTU, on their side. Nothing like a know-it-all, white dude taking up their cause.


And thus concludes your utterly worthless non-contribution to this dialogue. Are you such a know-none-of-it that you can post only spiteful and useless drivel? Your offering thus far would seem to confirm that.


I learned to be spiteful and post useless drivel, at your knee. Thanks Professor.
quote:
Originally posted by Tenn on my mind:
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by Tenn on my mind:
Guess UNCF is thrilled to have BTU, on their side. Nothing like a know-it-all, white dude taking up their cause.


And thus concludes your utterly worthless non-contribution to this dialogue. Are you such a know-none-of-it that you can post only spiteful and useless drivel? Your offering thus far would seem to confirm that.


I learned to be spiteful and post useless drivel, at your knee. Thanks Professor.


Typical mindless, predictable, "So's yer old man" type (failed) attempt at cleverness. Keeps you high in the running for Dipstick of the Month.
To my knowledge of past usage, Negro was not associated with racism per se. Nor is it today, per se. The current favored term of self-description amongst those of the "race" that historically is dominant in Subsaharan Africa is "people of color" or "black." This was not always the case, as in the phrase "Negro Self-Improvement League," as well as those phrases previously noted.

To use "Black" is rather odd, as many Bengalis and Tamils are darker than any African, and they are "Caucasian." Caucasians come in nearly shade of the rainbow, as do "Asiatic" or "East Asian," or whatever the terms are. What is an Uzbek national? Some have clear Turkic features, not Turkish, rather Turkic, and others Persian, others Russian, etc. Are they a "race?" Is a light skinned Aramaic speaker such as Haile Selassie who was about as "African" as he was "Arabic" or "Semitic" or even "Misrahi Jewish" as he was stereotypical "African," as are many Somalis today.

It is interesting, as I have read and wish I could find the citation that people tend to classify people as a member of a "race" mainly by their faces and hair, skin tone is secondary! Photos of people side by side from widely varying ethnic groups with only the arms showing show an amazing inability to guess the "race" of the photographed person. Add in the face, and it gets a lot easier, the hair is the icing on the cake. Then we have the Dominicans and Cubans and Puerto Ricans with their Chinese, Lebanese, Spanish, Taino, and African roots. Guess their "race," and good luck with it.
quote:
Originally posted by beternU:
quote:
Originally posted by TheMeInTeam:
I think "black" is a perfectly acceptable, neutral term, just like white. "Negro," on the other hand, hasn't been used since when black people were second-class citizens and subject to all kinds of injustices, so using it today instantly brings up those memories. Better off leaving it in the past.


Tell that to the United Negro College Fund. Tell it to those who still revere the memory of the old Negro League and its truly great Negro athletes. baseball players.

My guess is that you are under 40. Am I right?


Is that the same as the United White College Fund or the White Football League? Don't forget the Miss White USA or National White Month.

Add Reply

Post

Untitled Document
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×