"The blacks" -- It's Debateable

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Subject: "The blacks"

Author:
Astrid

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Date Posted: 10:07:41 09/24/02 Tue

There was some interest in this question off the BC board, so why don't I post this here and we can all discuss it.

It was suggested to a poster on the internet that using the phrase "the blacks" (as in "the blacks in America have experienced centuries of oppression") was racist.

It was suggested to me that "blacks" is offensive because it's such a generic descriptor. Fair enough--that isn't the argument set forward in the forum where this came up. I wouldn't call such language racist then, since it was the noun adopted BY the black community itself.

It seems to me that cultures which have had their identity stripped from them experience this linguistic evolution in an attempt to rebuild identity.

So, blacks were coloured and Negro and black and then Afro-American and then African-American. I actually am not sure what term is considered most correct currently, but I use the term black as it still seems to be well accepted in the black community (and is a lot shorter and more accurate than AA--black Canadians aren't AA, for example).

The absolutely correct term to describe a person merely by the colour of their skin (the equivalent to caucasian or asian) is negroid. That doesn't fly--perhaps because it sounds too much like "Negro" which has been rejected.

Any comments?

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: "The blacks"	Maria	12:30:19 09/24/02 Tue
Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 12:55:56 09/24/02 Tue Re: "The blacks" -- Maria, 15:32:56 09/24/02 Tue Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 15:53:54 09/24/02 Tue Re: "The blacks" -- Maria, 11:07:18 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 11:37:01 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 07:39:23 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 11:27:10 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 06:36:22 09/29/02 Sun Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 07:35:04 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 11:29:20 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Sadie, 21:49:10 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 10:54:56 09/27/02 Fri Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 06:41:13 09/29/02 Sun Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 21:00:10 09/29/02 Sun Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 01:47:47 10/01/02 Tue Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 10:10:59 10/01/02 Tue
Re: "The blacks"	M23	07:01:25 09/25/02 Wed
Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 09:54:29 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Raisinmom, 10:14:28 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 06:47:07 09/29/02 Sun Re: "The blacks" -- Siannach, 20:34:06 10/01/02 Tue Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 07:46:20 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- M23, 11:16:48 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 06:56:38 09/29/02 Sun Re: "The blacks" -- M23, 08:31:07 10/02/02 Wed
Re: "The blacks"	Raisinmom	07:09:04 09/25/02 Wed
Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 10:06:58 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Raisinmom, 10:21:20 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 11:43:53 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 11:48:37 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Raisinmom, 14:08:59 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 16:44:41 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Raisinmom, 18:41:13 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 11:34:41 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Raisinmom, 12:41:03 09/26/02 Thu
Re: "The blacks"	Alan	10:37:00 09/25/02 Wed
Re: "The blacks" -- Astrid, 11:51:43 09/25/02 Wed Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 07:28:54 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Anne, 08:42:37 09/26/02 Thu Re: "The blacks" -- Alan, 07:51:35 09/29/02 Sun Re: "The blacks" -- Anne, 08:54:36 09/26/02 Thu
Re: "The blacks"	Mallyn	17:29:21 10/02/02 Wed