What was wrong with the term negro? And why African-Americn is incorrect

The first part is a question, I know that "******" is very very offensive. I'm curious as to why negro is considered offensive.

I also have a problem with the term African-American. Just because you are black does not make you African. If you are black and born in America, you are American, and have no relevant relation to Africa. That's like me saying I'm Finish-Canadian because my ancestors came from Finland. And technically didn't all humans originate from Africa and migrate out thousands of years ago? If so that would make me African-Canadian even though I'm white as fuck.

Political correctness is retarded. Race shouldn't even exist as a term, realistically we're all just different morphological forms of Homo sapiens. Your skin is darker due to more exposure to sun over hundreds of year. CURRENT nationality and description of skin colour are all that should exist.

 

Ancestry isn't relevant relation to Africa?

 

I think negro has become offensive overtime because it is phonetically similar to ******; but it could also be because of association with things like the negro leagues.

African-American is a term that separates them from regular Americans. I really think 'black' is the best term to use when specification is really needed; and American otherwise.

I'm certainly not European-American.

 

The United States Census Bureau announced that Negro would be included on the 2010 United States Census, alongside "Black" and "African-American," because some older Black Americans nevertheless self-identify with the term

Euphemism treadmill

 

To me, "negro" is saying "I think of black people as a separate entity in their own right based on their skin colour. I want to separate them for me. I'll say "a negro" as I would "a dog" or "a parrot"."

It's exactly the same as if you were to call a pale-skinned person "a whitey" or "a ghosty".

Here comes the problem of what to call those with skin tones in between. Your question is like saying "what's wrong with calling those people pakis?"

What's wrong is, it's a needless separation and like "African American", says nothing about who that person really is. It's a label based on ignorance. Not all people with asian skin tones are from Pakistan, and not all black people from Africa. The lesson to take from this is that we should be well past labelling eachother based on the tone of our skin right now, in the same way we don't have names for eachother based on hair or eye colour.

Hey look, it's a green eyes!

 

You obviously did not read my post. Yes ancestry IS relevant relation to Africa, but just because 3 generations ago your ancestors came from there, and 50 generations ago my ancestors came from there, it is ridiculous for you to associate yourself as being from Africa. Because you aren't. Your ancestors are, but you're not.

I'm just trying to make the point that race shouldn't exist, it's a stupid idea. You are either a different morphological form of the specific epithet Homo sapien, or you are another species altogether. The term "African-American" should refer strictly to a nationality, unfortunately you can't be from more than one nationality at the same time and therefore you are either African or American. Born in Africa=African, born in America=American. Hence why white people born in Africa are African, it has nothing to do with skin colour.

 

I read it, it's just superfluous.
Look, I'm all for an egalitarian society completely free from prejudices, but that ideal does not necessitate the elimination of race. In fact, the elimination of race in support of an egalitarian society would be in opposition of egalitarianism itself.
Race is an important part of humanity in that it has given us vastly different cultures and traditions. It's one thing to say that a person should not discriminate because of race, and I would agree with that statement, but I think "race shouldn't exist" is kind of foolish. Not only does it already exist, but I think it also has made us as a species very diverse and multifaceted.

You can describe someone based on their nationality or their heritage. I don't understand why describing someone as "African-American" because they are an American whose lineage can be traced back to Africa is unacceptable to you. It seems perfectly fine and natural to me?
What sort of raving nationalism dictates that people must only be referred to as "Americans" if they were born here, with complete disregard for heritage (which happens to be a very important distinction, since heritage historically accounts for many socioeconomic statistics.)

Would you distinguish an American from a Native American?

 

In my experience, where I come from, not many blacks are offended by what many people would consider a racial slur.

 

I never though about that (the native american thing). But no, no I wouldn't. They are both simply Americans. And if you think that the cultures make the two types of people that much different then they are two different species. If a "Native American's" life history is that much different from an American now, then they are two different species.

If you look at nature, it two organisms are significantly morphologically different, or their life histories are that much different, they are considered a different species. The Linnaeus classification system is as follows:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Genus
Species

Thus, if you must make a distinction between "races," to me it is a distinction between species. We would become Homo americanus, while the natives would be something more along the lines Homo ______. No other very similar set of organisms on the planet has different races, they just have different species.

 

Species is not determined by culture and historical events.
Race and species are not interchangeable.
You can reproduce with a Native American person.

That is false.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subspecies

And before you say what I think you're going to say, all humans belong to the same subspecies, homo sapiens sapiens.

 

There are those moulded and labelled by humans, such as dogs. A border collie is not a chihuhua or a great dane. But these differences were selectively bred over what was relatively an incredibly short period of time, and were those "breeds" to be left to their own devices, they would all eventually return to a more similar dog model.

Human beings are an entirely different story. Humans have simply bred in the natural way and it has taken millions of years to get here. We cannot be broken down to anything less than a collective species in biological terms. Some humans have darker skin or smaller feet or bigger lips or tiny noses, but these traits are swapped and changed and blended within a few generations and trying to box us up into "races" creates a minefield. What race is a human with medium brown skin who was born in the UK but has one Indian grandparent and one white grandparent, one Mexican parent and one British?

 

What's the major differences between you and a Native American?
Does your theory apply to you and I (we are very different, trust me).
I'm not quite sure why you want to separate people into species...
Why can't you just think: some people are different.
Are Republicans and Democrats two different species?

 

I was trying to convey that we are all Homo sapiens with different nationalities and that these nationalities define our differences, and that the different "races" we see under the same nationalities were actually different species instead of different races.

However, on second thought and reappraisal of what everyone has said, the life history of Native Americans does make them so much different from myself, and I guess race is what separates the timeline of similar nationalities. While Native Americans and myself may both live in America at this point in time and are classified as Americans, we need a way to define our differences. I guess I could just settle for it being a different race. Sorry for wasting everyone's time, but it set my head straight at least. Thanks

Fuck I need to invest in sleep instead of muddling about inside my own noggin...

 

I went to high school with a girl from South Africa who moved to the US. She is white, but she is now an African American. lol

 

Two humans, each from different parts of the world are less genetically variant than two chimps taken from the same forest. To break the different races/ethnicities into species would be detrimentally false to the actual genetic differences we portray.

As for the op original question, isn't negro spanish for black anyways?!

 

Actually I remember in my Textbooks, Back in the Late 1970's we were taught in grammar/elementary school, that those from Africa were referred to as being "Negro's" in my 3rd Grade History Class. I believe that back in that time era the word "Negro" was the Politically Correct term back then. As time move forward it changed in my textbooks to being "Blacks" and I have been out of School now for 20 years now so I do not know what the students are taught by the textbooks as what race those of an African Decent are to be referred to Today or in this day and age.

 

if it is that kind of proves it point. if you can't say black what do you say?

i find political correctness crazy, but i tolerate because i wouldn't want to offend anyone. i think if i hear correctly, it was politically correct in the states to refer to a black person as 'africa-american', then somebody decided they just didn't fancy it and now it's back to 'black.

i think it's silly, but it's up to the group in question what they want to be called.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgd8tzct3ZY&feature=related"]YouTube - Militant Black Guy Pt1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=166RSY4lYyc"]YouTube - Toju the millitant black guy grass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu3u17F6tfQ&feature=related"]YouTube - Militant Black Guy on Balls of Steel

 

Gee I don't know how about trying to use his or her name?

I never liked being called cracker or Oreo or wigger so i can understand where it comes from, IGNORANCE.

If it all started with Adam and Eve would it not be safe to say you could use the words brother or sister?

But then again if we did that everyone would get along and we would not have nothing to bitch about so go figure.


Have A Great Day
Mr.Wags

 

it really should be African-North American