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Date Posted: 22:08:53 08/02/07 Thu
Author: Toy tiger
Subject: Re: Euphemisms
In reply to: Johnny Reb 's message, "Re: Euphemisms" on 20:22:41 08/02/07 Thu

>'nigger', then 'negro', then 'african-american', now
>'black.' i agree to the fullest, the first word is
>pejorative and thus to be rejected. but can someone
>explain what the further metamorphoses are supposed to
>be good for? are black people never satisfied with
>their group name? are the white people constantly
>insecure about how to name this group? if yes, why?
>how many more morphings are there to come yet? i am
>white of european descendance, and that's it. btw, we
>are not caucasian, this is ethnologically wrong as we
>do not stem from the caucasus region in asia.

The reason white people are referred to as 'Caucasian' stems from the work of a nineteenth century ethnologist, who decided that people from the Caucasus region were the most beautiful specimens of white humanity, and decided to use the term Caucasian for all white people.

It's a lot of rubbish, really. Of the nundred thousand or so genes, six control skin colour. Genetically, any white person may be just as or more similar to a random black person as to a random white person. There is only one race, the human race, and the rest is just colour and the shape of one's nose. Cultural divisions are more real, but they can be overcome, in time.

On the other hand, humans must form groups, and have outgroups and ingroups, so if it wasn't skin colour, it would be something else. In Ireland, where practically everybody is white, the divider was between Catholic and Protestant. In Nigeria, where everyone is black, the division was between Ibos and everyone else. Tutsis and Hutus, you name it, we can find a dividing line and stand on either side of it, throwing rocks at each other.

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