> From: Adrian Morgan
>
> The Gray Wizard wrote:
>
> > Although the term originally had political connotations (as did the
> > original shift from Negro or Colored to Black), neither Black nor
> > African-American carry much of those connotations any longer.
> > Certainly not among African-Americans and diminishingly so among other
> > Americans.
>
> Oh, there was a shift from Negro to Black? From a linguistic perspective
> that's very interesting because it strikes a sharp contrast with the
> Australian situation. Over here excessive use of 'black' would be viewed
> as trivialising the cultural and historical identity of the Aboriginal
> people (as though it were merely a matter of colour); speaking of the
> race by its proper and original name is the way to uphold that identity
> (on the other hand, whites are just whites.)
The term "negro" has no validity as a "proper and original name" for
African-Americans. It was a term imposed on a people whose cultural and
historical identity was deliberately destroyed by the institution of
slavery. Its historical referents were slaves. The shift from "negro" to
"black" and "African-American" was a deliberate dissociation from that
reference.
> The people whose ancestors were the most abused are in general the
> people most proud of their heritage. For this reason I would expect the
> cultural identity of black Americans to be a strong one. As often as not
> this leads to a preference for the oldest and most established title.
In this case, the "oldest and most established title" for the heritage that
African-Americans could take pride in was "African" and thus the shift away
from the term "negro" and its similarities with "nigra" and "nigger".
> Speaking of race and language, how about the way in which 'racist' is
> adopted to different cultural situations? I understand that in America
> the term is meant in the literal sense of someone who considers one race
> superior to another. In Australia it's not as useful to have a word for
> that attitude, so we usually adopt the term 'racism' to mean what you
> might call 'culturalism' or something -- the belief that it is harmful to
> compromise (ahem) the established (ahem) white community with too many
> people of other cultures.
Isn't the latter a manifestation of the former?
> > BTW, exactly what is an "actual black American"?
>
> I'll answer this only because it is language related, having to do
> with the way in which languages provide words (like "actual") that are
> basically used for emphasis. In this case, the term "actual black
> American" emphasises the difference between "black American" and, say,
> "some presumptious media or political figure pretending to speak on
> behalf of black Americans".
In what sense is someone who pretends "to speak on behalf of black
Americans" a black American, actual, virtual or otherwise. I agree that
this is language related, but I suspect that it is a misuse of the
adjective.
David
David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
dbell@graywizard.net
www.graywizard.net
"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates