It's interesting that you brought this up. Just the other day I was with a couple friends, one black, the other of pacific islander descent, and somehow this topic was brought up in our conversation. For some reason or another, my PI friend stated that he hadn't known that "colored" was a
non-"PC" term until attending our university and having someone confront him when he used this word. He then continued to express his confusion because he did not understand what the problem was with using the word "colored". Initially I thought of how ignorance seems to pervade even the most seemingly "ethnically aware" populations. Then on the other hand I was a little confused myself. Why should categorical labels such as this be definers of our identities as black people? I've honestly personally never given it too much extensive thought. I've just pretty much always went with the flow. I was a negro yesterday, Black today, and I'll be African-American tomorrow. I know some people that get more offended if someone refers to them as Black instead of African-American than if they would if they were called the N word. Has anyone done any research on this? I'd be interested to know a little more about this and how it relates to the psychology of Blacks and how we have historically used these terms to somehow reflect our consciousness of being people of African descent.
|