William F. Buckley still says "Negro?"

[Cocoa]

Am I crazy, or did that word stop being used about 30 years ago?

http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/wfb200406021606.asp

That phrase has something going for it. It was written by an American Negro poet, Langston Hughes (1902-1967). It is thought, in Kerryland, to be at once celebratory, poignant and galvanizing. "America" is cited, implicitly the paradise to which one should aspire, a great land that lies there waiting for us deep in coils of a lapsed American idealism, waiting to be revived by an inspired new champion.

[Bluebear]

1. Would he say an American Caucasian poet, Robert Frost?

They just can't help it can they?

[Vickers]

2. Dude, 1961 called and wants their bigotry back

:P

Honestly, I had to look at the date to make sure it wasn't some old article.

[mmm]

3. Damn! I haven't heard that word in years. Buckley is such a bastard!

He knew exactly what he was saying.

[MikeG]

4. The last time before that: Les Nessman on "WKRP in Cincinnati"

To Venus Flytrap: "Theres lots of negroes in sports".

[formactv]

5. It is a perfectly legitimate term.

It is hard to keep up with the politically correct word- currently Afro American seems to be in favor. I have been using black for many years. Afro American seems awkward and long. But what is wrong with Negro? It just means black.

[Cocoa]

7. can you imagine using it yourself?

actually, "Afro American" seems almost as dated. Just curious, do you live in the U.S.?

[El Supremo]

6. I still prefer "colored"

It is less direct than "black". But it is what they prefer that matters.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

22. "They?"

How about "us?" :shrug:

The breakdown by religion, class (I'm guilty on this point), race and ethnicity is by design. I tend to break people down into two groups: The Thinking and the Unthinking.

[smirkymonkey]

8. How about just "American Poet"????

William Fuckin' Buckley - G-zus!!

[DoNotRefill]

9. Well...

I've got a close friend who refers to himself as "negro" on government forms that ask race.

There's the United Negro College Fund.

The NAACP still uses "Colored".

In order for the term to be racist IMHO, it would depend on the context.

[Tomee450]

11. Your

friend is a most unusual black person. I am African American and I never hear black people referring to themselves as Negroes. For centuries other people determined what black people were to be called. The terms N---r, Nigra, Negro, and colored were foisted upon us. Then during the civil rights era African Americans decided to reject other people's identification. I find it puzzling that so many people became furious when blacks decided it would be they who would choose the term to be used to identify the black population.

[theboss]

12. I knew it was losing popularity as a term

I had no idea it was now offensive.

When I was editor of my college paper in the mid 90s, we changed our style guide from "Negroes" to "Blacks" and spent literally about ten hours trying to decide which word would be standard.

[DoNotRefill]

16. yup, he's a very unusual person....

USMA at West Point graduate, highly decorated and wounded veteran, spent the early 1960's in the South as an Officer, et cetera.

What he's doing with a friend like me I have NO clue....

BTW, if you call him an "Afro-American" or an "African-American", he gets mucho pissed. I once watched him go off on a 8-10 minute diatribe on somebody when called that...his main point was that he was an AMERICAN, he'd earned that right by spilling blood (both his and others), and he didn't want ANYBODY putting a qualifier on something he was very proud of. I just wish I could get him to buy a house next to mine...

[KamaAina]

10. Does he still say "Territory of Hawaii"?

That one went out of use around 1959, too.

[rucky]

18. Don't you mean the Sandwich Islands? n/t

[LearnedHand]

13. A few years back, that stupid bastard...

...called Colin Powell an "octoroon" (sp?). 'Scuse me, Massa Buckley, but last time I checked, we don't measure the amount of black blood in a person anymore. Oh, wait. I guess YOU do, though.

I was so stupefied by this word appearing in Buckley's column that I had it on my refrigerator for months.

Stupefied, I tell you.

[Poiuyt]

14. What's wrong with "dark-skinned?"

That's the term our honorable president uses.

[fujiyama]

15. Buckley is damn fossil!

I'm surprised people don't know that this word hasn't been used in a long time.

The two that are used are African American and black.

Of course, regarding Langston Hughes, I don't even know why race is important. I'd just say American poet.

[Djinn]

17. why is it ever mentioned in any context

I've never ever heard "two white youths committede XYZ" "caucasian writer XYZ" "XYZ, who is a person of European descent"

WTF is the reason for mentioning skin colour/ethnic background in this context?

[TheWizardOfMudd]

19. Did WB have prejudice or hate in his heart?

Or was he attempting to credit the race?

Negro means "black." It doesn't offend me as much as other descriptions.

[TexasMexican]

20. Black in Spanish is...

negro.

Unless you want to use the word that starts with an "M," but most people here probably dont.

The guy mentioned in this article probably is a racist, but that being said I dont think there is anything necessarily wrong with the word negro.

[Spider Jerusalem]

21. Not necessarily to defend Buckley, but...

it's likely that Hughes would've thought of himself as a "Negro", given his era. He certainly wouldn't have called himself "African-American" (a term of dubious worth, anyway, since Ethiopians, Egyptians, Algerians, Tunisians and Afrikaners are all African but are not "black", that is they do not share the ethnic/racial characteristics of sub-Saharan Africans).