Sorry, but it had to be done.
December - That was Vanetta Flowers, the anchor for the gold-medal winning American 2-woman bobsled team. (What made this victory especially notable was that the other team was supposed to be the big favorite; IIRC, Flowers wasn’t even the original substitute.) As the first American of, er, that ancestry to win any medal in the Winter Olympics, let alone a gold, this was a landmark achievement.
You’d think NBC would have the common sense to be prepared for the recap. I heard “African American American” as well. 
I’m sure it was a real treat for her, in her finest moment, doing something once thought impossible in the greatest international sports extravaganza in the world, to see NBC completely unable to even describe this achievement coherently.
(As for the OP…danged if I know what to call them. Maybe if one of them would make a suggestion? Preferably something with less than seven syllables.)
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MEBuckner *
**
The “official” names of the “three races” were Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid.
Thanks Buckner, this is what I’ve been looking for. I’m sold. That’s it then, the new name for a “Black” person is officially “NEGROID”.
It makes sense to me. On a death certificate, under “race”, a “white” man is indicated as Causacian. And now, a “Black” man is Negroid.
I can live with that.
Let’s put it into a real life situation and see how it sounds. “Yes officer, I was acosted by three individuals who demanded money. Two were caucasian and one was negroid”
Ok by me. It's in the books!!!I have a question. Which came first, the word nigger or the negative meaning assigned to it? Does it really matter?
So yes, today the word nigger is a word that is inextricably linked to very negative meanings, but perhaps at one time it was less negative. This is not to say that anyone should use the word today (with the the exceptions that some have noted above), however I think that it may be good to think about the fact that nigger could have been benign at one time.
There are several objections to this idea, none of which in my opinion refute my point (which I’m coming to). First you might say that today the word nigger has terribly negative connotations. True, but it has little bearing on the point I’m trying to make*. Second you might say that the word nigger comes from European languages and most likely was always used with a certain amount of scorn. This is probably true as well but I think it supports my conclusion. The conclusion being that the negative attitude towards people with darker skin was something that came before the word nigger. In other words, the hostile or superior attitude is the ultimate reason why certain words are given a pejorative meaning. You don’t have to hold these attitudes yourself if the meaning is ingrained strongly enough in the culture.
As I understand it the word nigger is simply a variation on the word negro (meaning ‘black’ in many Romance languages). It is another pronunciation essentially. Perhaps the word regionalism is more appropriate. Why did the word ‘nigger’ become really bad, where the words that mean pretty much the same thing ‘black’ and ‘negro’ acquire much less opprobrium? Perhaps it has to do with the people who used the terms rather than the terms themselves.
This brings me to my final point, which is about the word ‘black’. For whatever reason, I don’t attach any negative connotations ot the word itself, or at least not in any fundamental way to it. To be honest, there are terms like ‘black-hearted’ and such that have bad meanings, but this doesnt seem to get in the way of using the term in a neutral or even complementary way when I feel like it. I don’t think most people that I talk to are confused about my meaning either. What I’m trying to say is that you can have a lot more control over the meaning of word than you might think. True, it is hard to work against the current of the society that assigns this meaning to them, but I think that the solution to this problem is to confront the root of this thinking rather than the superficial manifestation that occurs at the level of words.
Words are very powerful things, they can cause pain and anger and hurt, but they gain their power from the human beings that use them.
You may disagree with me on this, but I believe pretty strongly in what I am saying. I may not have expounded it very well, but I have tried. You are quite free to take exception to anything I’ve said here, but if you do please don’t take exception with me. What I have written is but a spare reflection of my inner thoughts and I realize also that I may have many misconceptions about the world, as we all do.
*In my opinion.
Here’s a novel idea: Why don’t we call black people PEOPLE?
Sheesh.
b.
You might consider actually reading the threads to see if your clever and innovative insights have already been aired, and what the response was.
>?Maybe if Jesse Jackson had come up with “Sable” instead >of “Afro-American,” the world would be a better place.
Judging by the revelations about the man, I’d say the world would be a better place if he were put in jail!!!
My mistake, Furt, posted without noticing there was a second page.
I’m sure that simple mistake on my part earned your snide disdain. Thanks.
b.
You’re welcome.
Whenever there’s a serious problem, instead of dealing with and correcting it, we just come up with some new words and pretend it’s gone away.
Many of you probably know that at one point in time, “imbecile,” “idiot,” and “moron” all meant specific things related to one’s level of mental capacity, and they were medical terms, not insults. Then we called these same people “mentally retarded,” and then “developmentally disabled”…
my father spent most of his career in the mental-health field; I’m not sure what the “correct” term is these days.
Anyway, what I’m getting at is, people are going to have their own views on mental health, regardless of what names we use to describe the people at hand.
So back to the original subject; making up some fancy new name for “black” isn’t going to end racism, unify the world, et cetera. Words only mean what we think they mean…if you want change, change the way people think.
Why do we feel the need to label dogs?
I mean, they’re ALL canine but, most people take great caution when a rotweiller approaches, but may not have that same feeling with other breeds of canine.
We label sub-races of the Human race because, they need to be distinguished.
Caucasian - Negroid.
Rotweiller - Poodle.
I’m not necessarily aligning a certain type of breed of canine with a certain type of race of human but…
I reitterate what an earlier poster stated- people.
Simplicity is key.
Right. Well, I guess I’m a mutt. How do you predict what I’m going to do?
Oh, and I love the word “negroid”, you :wally
Oh really, for what purpose? Wait! I better ask my friend, at Berekely! She has Asian blood, so she’s smarter than me!!
Well, I have almond eyes. Does that count towards my IQ? :rolleyes:
I’ve never been able to understand the aversion people have to naming the colour of their skin.
Here in Japan, I’d MUCH rather be called Hakujin (literally “white person”) than Gaijin (loosely translates to “alien”, which is legally what I’m considered to be over here, and I have the alien registration to prove it).
Just the other day, one of my Japanese friends turned to me and said “Boy, looking at you makes me realise that we Japanese really ARE yellow”. When we held out our arms to compare, I saw she was right. Her arm is a shade of yellow, whereas mine is an extremely pale pink (almost pure white on the underside).
Its a FACT! Just the same as I’m a blue-eyed person, a brunette, slightly fat, knock-kneed. So why do we have to euphemise (don’t know if that’s a word or not…apologies if its not!) the topic?
I’m a mutt.
Or more accurately, a Kraut, a Mick, a Hunky, a Polack and a Bo-hunk. (Isn’t that what they call Slovaks? Or is that Czechs?)
got this in my email a couple of months ago:
Dear white fella
Couple things you should know
When I was born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in sun, I black
When I cold, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black.
You white fella
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you grey.
And you have the f*ckin nerve to call me colored?"
See, this is precisely the sort of grotesque stereotyping and ignorance that the SDMB was intended to eliminate.
Pus is not necessarily white. It can be yellow or greenish depending on its variable composition of white blood cells, cellular debris and bacteria (the greenish hue is due to the presence of the enzyme myeloperoxidase, found in neutrophils).
Go thou, and mischaracterize pus no more.
:wally
What’s up with this thread here in GD where a person that’s not black wants to find a new name for black people? I think this is stupid and this thread should be in the pit somewhere. **Scylla
** stick to finding names for you pets if you have them.
Ah, I’d missed our latest racist drive-by.
While it might be in the interest of some folks to wish that Jackson was ignored by the news media, it strikes me as particularly foolish to want him jailed–given that he has not been accused of any actual crime. (Of course, back in the good ol’ days in Rhodesia, you probably could jail a black man simply for being annoying.)
**
I dunno. Whassup with that? And, while we’re at it, whassup with those toothpaste dispensers where you can’t squeeze the last bit out, huh? What’s up with that?
And whassup with you coming across trying to tell me that my skin color makes certain topics verboten?
Why aren’t I supposed to have an opinion?
I don’t own any automatic weapons either. Does that mean I can’t have an opinion on them?
If a Doctor doesn’t have cancer, does that mean he’s not qualified to an opinion on how to treat it?
And whassup with hotdogs coming 8 to a package, but buns coming six?
Whassup with that?
**
So, if I follow your logic, you’re implying that you’re qualified to have an opinion on “Stupid” the way I’m not qualified to have an opinion on “Black.”
Ok by me.
**
How can you be qualified to have an opinion on where this thread should be when you didn’t write it and you’re not even a moderator?
Again, by your own logic, shouldn’t you stick to critiquing your own threads, and those in boards in which you are a moderator?
How dare you voice an opinion on a matter that doesn’t concern you.
Let’s see, you write a self-rebutting post, and now you deign to tell me how to conduct conduct myself without the benefit of any authority.
I’ll return the favor:
Make me.