Monday, November 04, 2013

Blacks, Coloreds and Negroes (and Negresses) Oh my!

Blacks,Coloreds and Negroes (and Negresses) Oh My.

Some people may think I'm a bit slow, so can someone tell me why saying people of color is perfectly fine but saying colored people is "racist"? If you want some real entertainment (I wouldn't advise this if you're not a colored,...pardon me, person of color) try using the word "negress" when referring to a colored female.

I admit, the term "colored" is a bit outdated, but racist? Definitely not! Years ago when I was probably 10-12 years old, I was watching the series Adam 12 with my mother. In this episode, a man had been held up and the officers asked him to describe the robber. When the man answered "He was colored." they asked him what color was he. I asked my mother what did that mean and she told me some people were offended by the term "colored".

She didn't think the term colored was any big deal and went on to explain that most American blacks are "colored" because the vast majority of us have other races mixed in (on my mother's side, we have Indian (Feather head, not dot head) French and Irish blood mixed in). She said that the only true "blacks" were African blacks.

From then on, I had no problem with being called colored. Back then I wasn't too crazy about the term Negro, it sounded too much like the other N word, especially when pronounced the way LBJ used to say it (Negrahs).

Indeed, the most racialist black (or colored or Negro) organization in the Country, the NAACP still hasn't changed its name to the NAAAAP (National Association for the Advancement of African-American People), so apparently they have no problem with the use of of the term colored either. That is unless it's a White Republican saying it.

Then we have the term "Negress". I first heard the term on Star Trek when Abraham Lincoln (For you people educated in public schools and the Northeastern University of Illinois, he was the Republican president who ended slavery) was beamed aboard The Enterprise. When he saw Lt Uhura he exclaimed "a charming negress" (and Lt Uhura was definitely that). Kirk and Uhura took a double take at old Abe and he apologized. I've heard the term negress a few times (and granted, only a few) since then and it wasn't taken as an insult.

What's the big deal? There's the term Latino for a male and Latina for a female, Filipino for a male and Filipina for a woman, so why not Negro for a colored male and Negress for a colored female?

There are just some people who take it as their mission in life to find any silly reason to be offended.

Negrah please!

Robot
InsideTheCompound@live.com
831-241-4767

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home