16 ms·
> Instead of: African-American > Consider using: Black Was this previously the other way around?
by DerSaidin 4y ago
> Instead of: African-American
> Consider using: Black
Was this previously the other way around?
- Mindless2112 4y agoYeah, well, it sort of falls apart once people start pointing out that Elon Musk is the richest African-American.
- nomel 4y agoBut what about mix raced, or just lighter skinned “black” people?
- Mindless2112 4y agoRace is crude social construct. It's practically useless and needs to be phased out.
- nomel 4y agoThere seems to be very strong resistance to the concept of "racial color blindness". I don't think this will happen within our lifetimes.
- Ekaros 4y agoI'm waiting for the time we go back to some variant of the Latin word for colour black. At this point, it might be possible.
- Throwawayaerlei 4y agoYes, in the 1970s plus or minus black was the preferred term.
- CoastalCoder 4y agoBloom County covered this pretty well in 1988 [0]. [0] https://2.bp.blogspot.com/3DPJBMraNogoZ4jNUjGALP_eaVRdd0RroTaytlOAmepI6dX8TjTeRFsdq0g_49fBHFmszzTDwlYCvaN837ktE4QkEiekMQMl57OghYOk6KWFnQ2Doxuk1z6n-zOvtWKkLoImg-8jvg=s0 https://2.bp.blogspot.com/3DPJBMraNogoZ4jNUjGALP_eaVRdd0RroT...
- hedora 4y ago"Black" was similarly offensive ten years later. This was especially awkward in English speaking countries other than the US.
- refurb 4y agoColored used to be the preferred term, then negro, then black, then African-American, now we're back to "black" being preferred...I guess? According to this article, it was various political/social leaders who pushed for new words. https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2010/october.htm https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2010/octo...
- foofoo4u 4y agoCalling some groups by a color is OK. Calling other groups by their color, not OK. Capitalization of the color should be used when referring to one group. But for a different group, capitalization is not to be made. There is no logically consistency. I was raised with the philosophy that calling a person Black was offensive and that I should always use the term African-American. I always respected this. But apparently this changed in the matter of two years. So not only are we faced with a logical inconsistency, but we are also on a language treadmill. It's creating landmines everywhere in general discourse.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> I was raised with the philosophy that calling a person Black was offensive and that I should always use the term African-American. I always respected this. But apparently this changed in the matter of two years No, it was never right in the first place, it didn’t change in 2 years. Racial labels have always been a matter where there are a variety of strong preferences shaped by different personal experiences. The actual rule is listen to abd be respectful of your specific audience; being aware of the general discourse and issues (of which, any particular author's preferred terminology alone is the least important bit) is part of doing that for general or new audiences.