First on CNN: Army says word 'Negro' OK to use
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN) -- A newly published U.S. Army regulation says a service member can be referred to as a "Negro" when describing "black or African American" personnel. The Army confirmed the language is contained in the October 22 "Army Command Policy," known as regulation AR 600-20. The regulation is periodically updated but the Army could not say how recently the word was added to the document.
In a lengthy section of the document describing "race and ethnic code definitions," the regulation states under the category "Black or African American" that would include, "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as "Haitian" or "Negro" can be used in addition to "Black" or "African American".
The Army, along with the rest of the military, collects extensive demographic data on the makeup of the military force for issues such as equal opportunity and ensuring discrimination does not take place.
One Army official familiar with the document said it's possible the word was added so when forms are filled out, a black or African-American person could "self report" and choose to identify themselves as a Negro. But a military officer specializing in personnel issues for the Defense Department called that "the dumbest thing I have ever heard," noting the Pentagon does not use the word in any of its extensive collection of demographic data
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/05/politics/army-says-word-negro-ok-to-use/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
The Republicans haven't even been sworn in yet... and we're ALREADY going backwards. UUUGHHH. This is jaw dropping.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
BP2
(554 posts)brush
(61,033 posts)
Skittles
(171,717 posts)you should refer to people as they wish - I don't hear anyone clamoring for the return of the word NEGRO
mysunderstood
(2 posts)with a dash of provocateur from CNN.
A newly published U.S. Army regulation says a service member can be referred to as a "Negro" when describing "black or African American" personnel. The Army confirmed the language is contained in the October 22 "Army Command Policy," known as regulation AR 600-20. The regulation is periodically updated but the Army could not say how recently the word was added to the document.
The AR 600-20 is not a new document. Saying it is "newly published" is clearly misleading everyone in this thread.
If you're familiar with how bureaucracies work the odds are this word was inserted in this manual literally decades ago, and has simply never been removed.
The Census literally updated their forms last year:
February 25, 2013
The Census Bureau announced Monday that it would drop the word "Negro" from its forms, after some described it as offensive. According to the Associated Press, the term will be replaced next year by black or African-American. From the AP:-NPR
"The change will take effect next year when the Census Bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau's racial statistics branch, said in an interview."
AP reports that the term was first used in the 1900 Census, and back in 2010, a bureau public information officer told us that the word had been on Census forms since about 1950.
But the bureau and the Census Director's Blog decided to tackle the issue after many African-American people complained about it during the 2010 Census.
"The category 'Black, African Am., or Negro' was used in Census 2000, based on research in the late 1990s that showed there was an older cohort of African-Americans who self-identified as 'Negro.' Surprisingly, about 56,000 persons took the time to write in under the 'some other race' category the word 'Negro.'
I think if you're trying to find offense in this you're trying too hard.
There is serious shit to be concerned about.
unrepentant progress
(611 posts)This sounds like typical bureaucratic copypasta.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Last edited Fri Nov 7, 2014, 11:13 AM - Edit history (1)
called a name that was used historically in this culture as a derogatory reference to a race of people who had been enslved by the ones who insisted black people had to be negroes. No poutrage, just trying to keep the clock going forward not back to the 'good old days'.
I am not surprised as to the remarks on here about "what's the fuss about the word negro"? "No big deal", da da, da da, da da. Well I'll say to most of you, you've never been a neegro in amerikkkan culture so it wouldn't be a big deal, to you.....
unrepentant progress
(611 posts)How do you know my skin color, or ethnic background? Don't assume that just because I'm not outraged over bureaucratic copypasta (read the last paragraph of the linked article because that's what this is -- it's not new) that I wouldn't be offended by being slapped with a derogatory label. Or do I need to start rapping, or speaking ebonics, so you can easily tell?
Your comment is also ahistorical. Prior to the late-1920s, colored was the preferred term until W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington convinced everybody that negro was "etymologically and phonetically ... much better and more logical than “African” or “colored” or any of the various hyphenated circumlocutions." Then in the mid-1960s Stoakey Carmichael led the charge for "black power" and in less than a decade black was the happening label. In the late 1980s, after the black power movement had long since fizzled, Jesse Jackson started pushing for African-American. And yet even today most black Americans have no preference between black and African-American when asked, and as others have noted, it wasn't until the PC 1990s that organizations like the UNCF decided that they could no longer use the word negro in their name (like NPR, UNCF is no longer an initialism -- that's their name).
So far, all I see is a bunch of white people getting their panties in a wad over a word that black people chose to apply to themselves in the not too distant past. That some bureaucratic manual has been copying and pasting the same section of text for decades should be taken merely as a sign of laziness, not racism.
Last but not least, negro is not n*gger. Hell, Thurgood Marshall himself used the damn word as late as 1985.
Ref:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-name-negro
http://www.gallup.com/poll/28816/black-african-american.aspx
473 U.S. 432: City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc.; http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=473&invol=432
heaven05
(18,124 posts)your skin color or ethnic background and all that tripe you wrote. I stand by what I say and asinine?That ebonics and rap comment takes the cake and it was insulting. Back atcha. First Booker T. Washington was a brilliant man but that was it. W.E.B Dubois, okay. All that you wrote, not in the least educational or interesting. And yes Stokely Carmichael was one that I respected and if you're going to reference him, spell his name right.. Black is the word. I did live in the south and the way Negro was pronounced left NO doubt as to how it was meant. Thurgood? great man, old school. It is not NEGRO today. You want to be a negro, be my guest. This is the 21st century, not the 19th.......
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)This person is black 
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)Apparently, it is fine to the majority!
heaven05
(18,124 posts)discriminatory, inflammatory writing like that person on C-span using the n-word. Dog whistle stuff is given a pass here. Thanks anyway.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)Oh wait..............Seriously, this is where people want to go crazy about race? Over a word that is also used to describe a HUGE enabler for the Black/Negro/African American community? What is wrong with people?
http://www.uncf.org/
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)
another negro...oh wait...you're not! heaven05
(18,124 posts)me laugh this morning. 
Yeah, no surprise at all. Wants to be an analyst, can't even breakdown down simple equations. Go figure.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)we have been over this before. Are you the one that told me I hated myself because I believe illegal immigration is wrong? I forget.....I run into so many people here that want to call me a racist because I respect laws and rules.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)never said it. Have a good day. I wonder why people would call you racist? My, the nerve.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)deal with the dog whistle mentality of amerikkka. Seriously, white people have been crazy, racist, murderous about race in this country, since slavery. You're known and so is your obvious and transparent agenda on this board. If you're ex-army.......damn!!!! I had to fight people like you in Vietnam along with having to defend myself against the VC.........still going on. Sad.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Dr. Kwame Matumba...on the HISTORICAL origins of the word 'neeegro and afrika'. Don't try to educate someone who has seen through those lies you referenced, many, many years ago!!!!!! And always some racist based law to prove a point that has been discredited for decades now. Why is that?
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)Just curious since I am the one providing examples of the word Negro used in a positive light. The UNCF must be an ironic usage of the word in your universe, fortunately your universe is not reality.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)them or not. That's extremely egotistical to think you have all the answers about what should offend or not. And negro has not an example that can be construed as a reference to "positive light". Please, you cannot tell me what does or does not offend me. Get that straight in your mind, if you can. I really must insist that you try. Call you racist, never entered my mind.
Skittles
(171,717 posts)AW DON'T BOTHER - that means it bothers someone else besides YOU
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)Approve of that post 
Skittles
(171,717 posts)yes, that's all you've got
jwirr
(39,215 posts)said that - I must confess in reading your post that I do genealogy as a hobby and I would never have found my families black heritage if not for the Negro label in a census record. I already knew about the Native American heritage and the white heritage. The black heritage was hidden in the Native American census.
MADem
(135,425 posts)If you go to Puerto Rico and you are asked on the phone what is your color, if you are Black, you say "neh-gro."
There are people of Hispanic heritage from PR and elsewhere in central and south America, who have African heritage, and who serve in the Army and who speak English as a second language.
I don't know if this is some "backward" thing or if it's a language-accommodation (in addition to the MLK era elders) thing. Not enough info in the OP to sort it out....
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)He can tell you about the negro.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)I'm sorry...
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)I am not deluded by the belief that all things in America are racist and that blacks don't receive a fair shake.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)you are obvious....in your cluelessness concerning black people in amerikkka and the racist nature of amerikkkan culture, systemically and institutionally. "Fair shake", please tell that to the recent jury and state sanctioned black murder victims, at the hands of state sanctioned executioners carrying out amerikkkan due process when it comes to black males, usually young, so far.
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)Wow....there is really no helping crazy people......I don't even know how to respond to such unbelievably hyperbolic buffoonery.....
heaven05
(18,124 posts)just keep embarrassing yourself. When one resorts to name calling, it reflects a certain lack of intellectual capacity and a frustration with not being able to refute my truth with your lies. You are truly.......sad.. I'm am through having my fun with you. I tried to educate you....an impossible task. Go you way and grow up some and come back later when you're ready to engage in adult conversation.
uppityperson
(116,020 posts)
UpInArms
(54,984 posts)
where am I?
what country is this?
I am so saddened
christx30
(6,241 posts)different water fountains? Or is that a few years down the line? When do we start saying 'boy'?
Hopefully I won't need this, but adding just in case
mb999
(89 posts)They can restore America to the good ol days of the 1950s.
Response to philosslayer (Original post)
Drayden This message was self-deleted by its author.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)How would you want the Army to describe someone when name, rank and number is unknown? i.e. "A White person I meet in a bar, hit me with a wench and stole my wallet" instead of "A person I meet in a bar, hit me with a wench and stole my wallet? You have narrowed down the list of suspects, maybe not a lot but the list has been narrowed. It is in such situations is when such terms are to be to be used. Someone wanted to add "Negro" to the list of acceptable terms for some reason.
In the US, the term "Negro" was traditionally used on African Americans with dark black skin. African Americans with lighter skins (which implied some white blood in them) were referred to as "Colored" till the 1940s (The NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an example of a term invented in that time period).
"Black" was the term preferred starting in the 1940s and till recently, when African American started to become the preferred term (to reflect the even older terms Italian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, German-Americas. please note prior to the 1950s the term 'Italian",
"Mexican" "German" were the preferred term for such groups even if they family had been in the US for centuries).
My question is why now? Negro is an old term, used on a Mountain in Western Pennsylvania. Negro Mountain is believed to be named after the death of an African American on that Mountain in the 1730s. Why bring it up today? African Americans have been trying they best to kill off the remains of the concept that the more white blood an African American had in them, the better they were. The African American Community has been trying to kill off that concept since at least the Civil War (And escalated after 1940).
Now, Negro is a technical correct term (along with Caucasians and Mongoloid of the three "Traditional" race divisions, White, Yellow and black, I use the term "Traditional" for in the years since WWII such a division has fallen out of favor).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_classification)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States
Given the closeness of Negro to a well know work for African Americans that contains two instead of one g, why list is now? If it had been in the book for decades, no problem it is historically correct, but having NOT been in the book till now, why now?
One reason could be a review of records shows the name has been used for decades even through NOT in the book. If true then the addition is just the book finally catching up to reality. This is speculation on my part, and someone should look into it and find out why to make sure it is NOT something racist. i.e someone used the term to describe Obama and someone check out the manual and found Negro was not in it, and then it was decided to add it for it has been used for years by some people writing reports.
Response to happyslug (Reply #8)
Drayden This message was self-deleted by its author.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 6, 2014, 12:39 PM - Edit history (1)
Both have dark skin, but their facial features are different. Furthermore 'Dark Brown Skin" can include someone with the facial features of a Mexican, Italian, Arab etc. The term "Negro" narrows down that list, the same as "African American" narrows the list.
Side note: At least one Scientist call the Davidian a branch of the "Caucasian Race", even though many Davidian have some of the darkest skin colors among all humans.
"Negro" like "Colored" and even "African American" not only implies skin color but generally accepted other features including facial features and hair type. Australian Aborigine have certain features independent of Skin Color. A Dravidian of southern India, has certain features that distinct him or her from other groups (More like the other people of the Indian Subcontinent through recent DNA studies indicate a close connection between the Dravidians and the People of East Asia including the Australian Aborigine).
In the days of Slavery, it was not uncommon to use the actual tribe of an escape slave, both for certain innate characteristics of that tribe, but also the type of clothing and hair style. In many posters the term 'Half Breed" was used to describe a person whose father or mother was white, but the other parent was a Native American. The reason for this was simple, such people had features from both parents (DNA will come out).
The real question is not that this term is being used, it is an old term, but why the recent adoption of the term? I suspect it has been used for decades but for some reason never put into this book of acceptable terms. In Police Dramas as late as the 1950s, the term "Negro" was used to describe an African American (It was deemed more acceptable then "Colored" and the term "Black" for African Americans did not become popular till the 1960s, thus Negro was the only term left once "Colored" was no longer acceptable and "Black" is not yet accepted, It is for this reason it was widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s when 'Black is Beautiful" made "Black' the preferred terms for African Americans).
Side note: While the terms White, Black and Yellow were used for the three main races as race was understood in the first half the 20th Century, the preferred terms were the "Proper" names for these three "Races'. i.e Caucasian, Mongolian and Negro. Thus a lot of paperwork prior to the 1960s (and afterward, I remember seeing them) mentioned these three names NOT White, Yellow and Black. The terms "White, Black and Yellow" only became "Popular" starting in the 1960s (but were used earlier, just like the terms Caucasian, Mongolian and Negro are occasionally used to this day.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)by a majority caucasian race who usually used the two g description for AA. Negro is a negative word. He is AA or black american would aptly describe the black american soldier.negro as a term of negativity in it's origins: The origin of the terms negro and afrika: Kent State University Professor Emeritus..Dr Kwame Matumba has an excellent treatise on that word negro. It's a negative term meant to be negative as used by a systemically and institutionally racist culture. Period,
nichomachus
(12,754 posts)I've seen a lot of things thrown around in a bar fight, but never a wench.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)
Scairp
(2,749 posts)I guess I'm slow but what exactly would be the point in using this antiquated terminology?
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)Of course, I never hear someone say "Negro" but the police still call white people "Caucasian". Is the term "Asian" also antiquated? What about "Hispanic"? "Polynesian"? I'm not really understanding why the term "Negro" (which I've only ever seen on a form anyway along with all these other terms and never in speech) is any more unacceptable as any of these other terms that aren't.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)that word connotes the n-word. Negro as a word describing a AA person is derogatory. America made that term negative. No other culture did, just this one. THAT'S why it is an UNACCEPTABLE descriptive term/word of a person of color. AmeriKKKa made it ugly!!!!!!!!!
AnalystInParadise
(1,832 posts)Or what about these ladies? Are they making a derogatory comment about themselves?
http://www.ncnw.org/
U4ikLefty
(4,012 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)but seriously it won't help certain people on this board, the one you're responding to especially. Won't even acknowledge that they can read truth without it making them sick. Just like to spit out RW BS.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)go right ahead. Be my guest. I already explained UNCF. No reason to repeat for someone that cannot understand history and white people using the word negro. Thickness cannot be explained to. You're known and have laid out your whole agenda too many times for me to do anything but.....
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)I would not insist that it is not a slur. Is it so difficult to give black people that same respect?
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)I just don't understand why it IS considered a slur when similar terms for other races aren't. I don't consider the term Caucasian as any kind of a slur... just a term to describe a white person and still used today at least by the police.
What I'm getting at is WHY is the term Negro is considered to be a slur. Was there ever some time that the term was used as a slur? Because I've only seen or heard it used as a correct non-slur term similar to other terms referring to people of a particular race mostly on forms where one identifies their race or used by a current institution like the United Negro College Fund. What happened that made some people decide it was a slur because I've never seen or heard it used as a slur.
I've never actually used the term myself or heard anyone else use it at all just as the term Caucasian isn't normally used as a term to describe the white race. Some races are still normally defined by these similar terms such as Asian, Hispanic, Polynesian, etc. and the terms are used in speech, but when it comes to either black or white people it's the terms "black" and "white" that are used so we almost never hear or see the terms "Negro" or "Caucasian". I'm just not understanding why the term "Caucasian" isn't considered a slur but now the term "Negro" is.
I'm happy to use whatever terms people are comfortable with to describe their race, but I've already had a lot of confusion between the terms "black" and "African American". Some people prefer to be referred to and have other members of their race referred to as "African American" but others don't like that term and prefer that the term "black" is used. Whatever term I use someone doesn't like it. I never even understood the term "African American" because it just doesn't work as a descriptive term of a race... obviously not all black people are Americans. I'm hardly going to refer to a British black person as an "African American," and I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate it either. I finally decided that since most black people don't have a problem with the term "black," and they don't have a problem using the term "white" as a descriptive term for people of my race than that's what I'm using unless a certain person I personally know prefers something else.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Last edited Mon Nov 10, 2014, 09:27 AM - Edit history (1)
name for white people. Negro is a derogatory name for AA people. Is there a problem????? All that deflection with Asian, Polynesian is just that. Transparent and obvious distraction concerning a word that is considered offensive to a large majority of AA people. History of the usage of Negro in this country is all the truth I need. What forms are you talking about? I have not seen negro in a long time.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)n/t
Rex
(65,616 posts)I think it depends on the individual. I don't mind being called a white person, but then again my race has never experienced institutional racism at the hands of another race - so imo - saying I'm white doesn't really have an impact.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Thus what is the equivalent name to Caucasian? White, Yellow and Black are NOT the proper name thus you did not answer the question, which is "what are the proper name for what in generally accepted as the "three races" of mankind? Caucasian is the accepted name for those out of Europe, what about the other two races?
Rex
(65,616 posts)Negroid and Mongoloid. I'm going to guess that is what you are talking about. These are just general physical types.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)what is the 'proper' name> Please tell me.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Thus it is up to you to determine what word use as the proper name for that race.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)about "that race". geez Gave yourself away.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)And this is just a sample of what will be coming.
demosincebirth
(12,826 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)happyslug
(14,779 posts)You are confusing it with its derivative that uses two gs.
In the 1860 presidential campaign one Politician when discussing the four people running for President that year made the comment about Breckenridge one those candidates. That phase Paraphrased was "The American people will never elected a man to be President who spells Negro with two gs"
Thus that one term, Negro, was acceptable, but its two g directive was unacceptable was known by 1860.
1. Lincoln for the GOP (anti-slavery advocates, Free Soilers and former Northern Whigs), every state NORTH of the Mason-Dixon Line and the Ohio river that were then in the Union. Lincoln lost Missouri, but won California and Oregon which were the only states West of Texas (which went with Breckenridge), Arkansas (which went with Breckenridge), Missouri (which went to Douglas), Iowa (Lincoln) and Minnesota (Lincoln) at that time period.
2. Douglas for the Democratic party, in votes case, Douglas came in second to Lincoln, but won only Missouri.
3. Brendonridge for Southern Democrats who left the Party when Douglas was nominated, He won every state South of the Mason Dixon line and the Ohio River except for Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky.
4. Bell, whose Constitutional party was the remains of the Southern Wing of the then dead Whig Party, but as Southerns could NOT support any Anti-Slavery Republican Party. Bell won Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860
Please note these are all candidates for the GENERAL ELECTION not any primaries (Primaries were only invented around 1900).
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)I think many actual black Americans do.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)whole years of slavery and jim crow.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)
jwirr
(39,215 posts)happyslug
(14,779 posts)As I pointed out above, so did JFK and LBJ in the 1960s (and LBJ used it is the speech asking Congress to pass the Voters Rights Act).
That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way......
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/jfk-civilrights/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Address
LBJ did the same, in what is considered one of the top ten speeches since WWII, LBJ's Speech askikng for Congress to pass the Voters Right Act of 1965:
I urge every member of both parties—Americans of all religions and of all colors—from every section of this country—to join me in that cause.
At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.
There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem.
And we are met here tonight as Americans—not as Democrats or Republicans—we are met here as Americans to solve that problem.
This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, north and south: "All men are created equal" — "Government by consent of the governed" — "Give me liberty or give me death."…
Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in man's possessions. It cannot be found in his power or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being….
Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.
Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes….
Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books—and I have helped to put three of them there—can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it.
In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution.
We must now act in obedience to that oath.
Wednesday I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote….
To those who seek to avoid action by their National Government in their home communities—who want to and who seek to maintain purely local control over elections—the answer is simple. Open your polling places to all your people. Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin. Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land. There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.
I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer….
But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.
Their cause must be our cause too, because it is not just Negroes but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome….
This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all—all black and white, all North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies—poverty, ignorance, disease—they are our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too—poverty, disease, and ignorance—we shall overcome.
http://www.greatamericandocuments.com/speeches/lbj-voting-rights.html\
Martin Luther King even used it, in his "I have a Dream Speech":
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!3
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf
heaven05
(18,124 posts)to a later expert, Professor Emeritus, Kent State University, Dr. Kwame Matumba on the historical origins of the terms negro and afrika. American culture is not a culture that would not have something negative meant, when associating black people with the term negro. And, historically, it is a negative racist based word. Period.
MADem
(135,425 posts)"neh-gro" and it means Black.
There is no offense when the word is used in that fashion. Now, if you start talking about "negrito" we can have a conversation, depending upon the context....
As I have said elsewhere in this thread, there are many Hispanics in the Army, to the point where they are approaching critical mass---so I just don't know where they are going with this. This may be the "backward" thing, and it may not--I don't know. I do know that one in five Army soldiers are Black, so if they're trying to piss off a fifth of their force, that's probably not too smart.
brush
(61,033 posts)C'mon, neither the usage or pronunciation are the same — not even close.
Jamastiene
(38,206 posts)That doesn't make it right to use in America, considering the history and the negative usage of the word historically. It makes it even more hideous knowing the history in America.
JonLP24
(29,929 posts)He was also EO rep which featured the great equal opportunity info that even opened my eyes to things.
One of his very first acts in addressing the platoon he noticed soldiers with the same last name but one white, the other black. He had tags with first initial printed to avoid what had already took place in the platoon was a "black Smith" "white Smith" type of thing when discussions of people came up. It did lead to a "L. Clark" "M. Clark" being used without thought in conversations.
Another thing that no other leader in the company made issue of is when he dressed down the platoon over soldiers saying things like, "derka, derka" calling it racism and said, "You wouldn't go around saying N-"
I'd so much respect for him in is he avoided the friends game and punished & rewarded fairly regardless where you stood. Punishment was likely worse for NCOs.
Can't believe Army brass are deciding stupid shit like that. Obama should appoint (probably higher rank these days) SFC Henderson to Secretary of Defense. In terms of benefit to the world, I'm dead serious.
KinMd
(966 posts)who uses it anymore? The last person I heard use it was a black guy I work with who was joking with another black guy
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Just use the search engine duckduckgo and ask for the defamatory origins of the word negro. Dr. Kwame Natumba...Professor Emeritus....Kent State University...i hope you will find it educational and informative.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way......
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/jfk-civilrights/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Address
Here is JFK using the term Negro in a 1962 Press Conference:
LBJ did the same, in what is considered one of the top ten speeches since WWII:
I urge every member of both parties—Americans of all religions and of all colors—from every section of this country—to join me in that cause.
At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.
There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem.
And we are met here tonight as Americans—not as Democrats or Republicans—we are met here as Americans to solve that problem.
This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, north and south: "All men are created equal" — "Government by consent of the governed" — "Give me liberty or give me death."…
Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in man's possessions. It cannot be found in his power or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being….
Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.
Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes….
Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books—and I have helped to put three of them there—can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it.
In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution.
We must now act in obedience to that oath.
Wednesday I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote….
To those who seek to avoid action by their National Government in their home communities—who want to and who seek to maintain purely local control over elections—the answer is simple. Open your polling places to all your people. Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin. Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land. There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.
I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer….
But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.
Their cause must be our cause too, because it is not just Negroes but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome….
This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all—all black and white, all North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies—poverty, ignorance, disease—they are our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too—poverty, disease, and ignorance—we shall overcome.
http://www.greatamericandocuments.com/speeches/lbj-voting-rights.html\
Martin Luther King even used it, in his "I have a Dream Speech":
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!3
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf
As been pointed out by myself and others, till the 1960s Negro was the preferred term for African Americans. You may NOT like that fact, but it was the preferred term till the late 1960s when "Black" finally replaced it.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)the term was proper for JFK's time as is evidenced by your bold print, which proves nothing or changes the hateful origin of the word NEGRO. It was the only word that whites knew except for the other word whites knew for people of the African-american race. Yes, Africa is a continent, so any black american with a family history that probably includes slaves,at one time, can properly be described as African-american in their origin...... In the 60's that word as an accepted description of a race of people started to change among African- american people. Maybe some white people today want to return to a description referencing a race of people with a word from 50 years ago, it's not what a majority of my peers accept as a description of what a black man or woman prefer to be described as, yes I asked(polled) a lot of my peers. All that linkage is just that, superfluous. I gave one reference and it is the correct one. Whether you accept that Professor Emeritus and his explanation IS NOT my concern. I don't want to be referred to with a description of a race of people based in racist hate that whites are ready to accept again. My peers and I REJECT this excuse for a certain segment of society to try to be 'superior', again.
So live in whatever past you prefer, I am living in the present and fighting the future the RW voters chose on November 4, 2014. By the way, those of US that didn't vote, chose the same future. More unarmed 'negros' shot down in the streets by racist Caucasians and their proxies. Don't try to educate someone who has the experience of having lived through the times you reference. You ARE not standing on firm ground.
pettypace
(744 posts)The United Negro College Fund would publish numerous commercials that never omitted the full name.
And that was in the freakin 90s.
Henry Reid of Nevada referred to Obama as having a 'negro dialect' during the presidential election. How long ago was that.
montana_hazeleyes
(3,424 posts)this is batsh!t racist crap . No B.S. excuses. My blood has been boiling over the whole racist unleashing since President Obama has been elected twice. I've been alive many decades and this country is more racist than ever.
President Obama has taken so much dog manure, hate, and everything else thrown at him and has still been a decent man going through it all.
Now it will get WORSE. Every smug, racist bastard can go to hell. ( I wish there was a hell).
Sorry for ranting, i don't usually, but I'm sick to death of all these Racist Demons. They have really showed their racist behinds and it helped them out greatly.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)is offensive in any context it is used with. Read reply #95. Montana and philosslayer have a point.
N.Y. to Paris
(110 posts)If I were black, I believe I would seriously consider starting a petition for folks of my persuasion to tell the army to go fuck itself.....(nothing personal you understand, you've always been so good to us, especially when we come home)....I know it might be "easy for me to say" not having to deal with all that oppression, but to me, it's all based upon lies these days anyway,.......Meet the New War.....Same as the Old War.......
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)
jwirr
(39,215 posts)organization that takes most of our tax dollars to say what a group of people can be called. Especially when those people object.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)And as such, one might not be offended were it not for the fact that the Southern mispronunciation "ni..." was most definitely used as a derogatory word, hence African American's natural desire to change from negro.
I believe the most considerate word or words should be the best consensus from among our African Americans.
In this new situation with our military, I doubt that they went to the trouble of determining what our African Americans approved of.
Probably, the word negro will be taken out of use in the military.
LannyDeVaney
(1,033 posts)there is the United Negro College Fund.
Nobody seems offended by that.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts) LannyDeVaney
(1,033 posts)I'm serious.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)regardless of what a 70 year old charity is called.
And BTW, there has been, and continues to be, a campaign to change the organization's name ... that's way they no longer use the full name; but rather, the initials (UNCF).
LannyDeVaney
(1,033 posts)I'm a firm believer that "something is offensive if the target finds it offensive" ... similar to the Redskins name. It's not for me to say if it's offensive - it's for Native Americans to say if it's offensive.
It's just that as I brought this issue up with friends yesterday (disclaimer: white friends) they all threw the UNCF back at me.
I hope you have a great day.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)If allowed to, they would go to, "well the rappers use (that word), so why can't I? "
LannyDeVaney
(1,033 posts)http://diverseeducation.com/article/10514/
Seems they did change the name way back in 2008. Thank you so much for the heads up.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!3
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)"status quo maintaining asshole"
You do realize that there is a difference between a speech and a regulation manual, right?
Here's a hint, one is routinely updated to address changing circumstances ... the other is frequently trotted on by white "liberal"s to make a point, particularly to Black people, that the speaker never made.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)use the word in mixed company, if you join mix company groups in conversation or whatever.
LannyDeVaney
(1,033 posts)Please don't paint me as some racist. I'm genuinely curious why a large charity organization in support of African-American college education can use the term (heck, it may even be copyrighted), why can't the US Army? If people are offended by the title United Negro College Fund, I've never heard about it.
That being said, I wouldn't use the term in any company as I never refer to an individual by their race. Everyone I know has a name. I'm just trying to figure out why the permission to use it in the Army is suddenly offensive to everyone.
unrepentant progress
(611 posts)Like NPR, the UNCF is no longer an initialism. It's just their name.
LannyDeVaney
(1,033 posts)found the announcement. Looks like they changed the name way back in 2008. Good to know.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)so it had to be leave a good thing alone. There are not a lot of modern AA that prefer negro as a description of their race. Some 'old school' people still use it I'm sure. Yet for me it is from an era where that appellation dredges up memories of unreasonable hate, as it does today, of someone with melanin in their skin. But if anyone wants to use it I tell them, be my guest.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)it will be re-visited the first time a soldier pronounces the term, as is/was popular, particularly in the south: "Nig-grow" or "Nigger-row", and gets his/her lip split.
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)Thank you DLC for all your help in getting us to where we are today.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Will Redskin be acceptable for Native Americans who are so inclined to use it?
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Negro is a derogatory word invented by racist pigs. 
unrepentant progress
(611 posts)It was popularized by W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, and remained the preferred term until Stokely Carmichael came along. Thurgood Marshall used the word as late as 1985. See my longer post upstream.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)It is considered an insult now, as yet another actual black person is telling you.
unrepentant progress
(611 posts)I know this guy offering a million dollar prize for anybody who's that talented.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts) you sure as hell are not black.unrepentant progress
(611 posts)What an asswipe.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)You are Cliven Bundy. A white person who thinks you can postulate about "the negro" as suspected.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)per reply#74. The 'elite' are above reproach.......even if the reproach is justified. You were right.
Response to unrepentant progress (Reply #69)
Post removed
heaven05
(18,124 posts)but say anything that can even look, sound like an insult to the 'privileged' you will be hidden, maybe even banned. What can be expected? This is board is one representation of amerika AND americans after all......I've never alerted here in recent times, maybe just once before over an obvious racial slur....I am thinking about doing it again. I usually don't because I love to see how much rope is taken by people like this before they reach the end....... let them show themselves......
heaven05
(18,124 posts)people like this LOVE to tell people what they must and must not be offended by, especially black people. Don't sweat it. They really can't help being what and who they are.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)Let us see if the DU jury will think this post is over the top...or perfectly fine. You are an asshole, imho, not an asswipe
heaven05
(18,124 posts)you keep intimating that you are negro, what is a person to surmise? No, no one is an asswipe on here, "seriously"......Except maybe.........
markpkessinger
(8,912 posts). . . and it is hardly surprising that a very elderly African American Supreme Court justice might still have been using the term in 1985 (nearly thee decades years ago). That doesn't make it acceptable now.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)just google, although google really sucks, the defamatory origins of the word negro.....there is a lot there and in my search engine duckduckgo.....one of the first explanations is from professor Emeritus, Kent State University..Dr. Kwame Natambu....'Origins of the term Negro and Afrika'...not surprisingly...Europeans figured most prominently in the derogatory, inflammatory and denigrating creations of this descriptive term for black people of afrikan origin....... Very informative IF, IF, IF you negrophiles want to learn something. I'm through with you on here who "don't see any problem with the word negro"...
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Republicans won a few seats in the legislature and the rightie bureaucrats are going to go buck wild for the next two years.
This is why I never understood why some DU posters excuse everything the federal government does just because we have a Black Democratic President.
The federal government is not left of center, or center. It is far right.
Faaaaar right.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)then we'll find out how acceptable the term is.