Black people (terminology)
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One difficulty in trying to understand the role of black people in the world and their history is the profusion of different terminology and disagreements about what is a black person.
| Locale | Usage |
|---|---|
| Australia | Australian Aborigines are commonly called black. |
| Canada | Canadians use the terms African American or Black Canadian to refer to people with dark skin. |
| China | Chinese people differ by locality in the exact terms used. Following the dictionary of Mandarin Chinese published by the Ministry of Education in 1936, the people attending school in Taiwan are taught to say "hēi zhǒng rén," whereas people atttending school in the People's Republic of China just say "hẽi rén", the first meaning "people of the black variety," and the second meaning simply "black people." The Ministry of Education dictionary includes both African and Australian populations among "hēi zhǒng rén." |
| France | The French slang term black (pronounced the same as English, except in plural in which form the 's' is not pronounced) is a pseudo-anglicism, used only as a noun. In standard French, noir (literally, "black") is generally used. |
| Germany | "Farbige", meaning "Coloured" in German. |
| Israel | "Schwartze," (from 'schwarz', German for 'black'), was a derogatory term to describe Sephardi Jewish immigrants, particularly from North Africa. The term has diminished in use especially after the arrival of the Beta Israel from Ethiopia. Other terms used by the Hebrew speaking world are "Kushim", meaning that their origins are in Kush, or "Yemenites." These terms generally are not considered offensive in any way. |
| Italy | Black people (usually African immigrants, many of which from Senegal), can be called neri, while the similar term negri is highly offensive. Another derogatory expression is vu' cumpra' ("wanna buy?"), referred especially to black immigrants selling on streets or beaches. A borderline term is extracomunitari, that refers to the fact that these people come often from outside the European Union (which used to be called the European Economic Community; since this is never used to indicate, say, Americans, Norwegians or Swiss, this term is often considered hypocritical. |
| Japan | The term in Japanese is "kurojin," black people. |
| Latin America | A number of terms are used. The most politically correct form would be terms such as Afro-Mexican, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian, etc., or – on a continental basis – Afro-Latin American. Commonly used terms include negro (Sp. "Black"; note that this rarely carries a derogatory meaning in Latin America.) and moreno (in the distant etymological past, a reference to the blackness of "los moros," or "the Moors"). Derogatory terms do exist, however, such as chombo (used in South America). |
| The Netherlands | The Dutch use negers (negroes). Zwart (black) is used as an adjective, though as a noun (zwarte) it may be intended in a (slightly) derogatory manner. However, it is common to refer to the country of origin instead, e.g. Somaliër, Senegalees, Nigeriaan, Antilliaan or Surinamer, though it should be noted that the latter two can also refer to whites from the Netherlands Antilles or Surinam. Nikker, roetmop and kaffer are offensive (kaffer comes from the arabic word kafir which means infidel and was used by Arabs for Africans). The antiquated word moor refers to Mauritania and was used for both black and muslims. |
| Norway | In Norwegian the most common term is neger (negro) and negre (negroes). The adjective form is svart (black) and svarte (blacks). Some people find the term neger offensive, but this is a pretty new phenomena (from around 2000) and the term is usually not regarded as offensive. |
| Poland | The neutral Polish term for a black person is Murzyn (plural: Murzyni). The term czarnuch (pl. czarnuchy, from czarny = "black") is considered offensive. |
| Romania | Romanians use the term negri (blacks) to refer to African or African-American people, either in or outside Romania. Negri is not used to refer to other dark-skinned people, such as Pacific Islanders or Indians. The diminutive form negrotei might be occasionally considered offensive. The term cioroi or cioară, which also means crow is usually offensive. |
| Russia | Russians today apply the name chornyye (чёрные, Blacks) mostly not to Africans, but to people from Caucasus, which quite naturally belong to the Caucasian race. Africans are usually called negry (не́гры, Negroes). |
| South Africa | The South Africans use the term blacks for the general black population, but since the country consists of different ethnic groups, they are often called by their ethnic names, e.g. Zulus, Xhosas, Basutos etc. |
| Turkey | Zenci (Negro) is widely used for people of sub-Saharan ancestry. The once popular arap is now out of use and people who find Zenci derogatory prefer to use siyah (black) or more commonly, siyahi (black person) instead. |
| United Kingdom | The term black Briton is sometimes used in the UK, but it is more common to use an adjectival rather than a noun term and write about black British people. Rarely the description is loosely used to also include what is actually a larger demographic, British people of south Asian descent. See also: British Afro-Caribbean community. |
| United States | In the USA, African Americans are commonly called, and call themselves, black. They may also use the N-word. |
Contents |
[edit] Process of pejoration
Part of the difficulty in dealing with terms to use when referring to a group, particularly one that has been subject to discrimination, is that the terms that were common, standard and accepted over time have a tendency to develop negative connotations. This is the well-known process in linguistics known as pejoration.
In the case of African Americans, this can be observed by surveying the most common and accepted terms to refer to African Americans over the last century. In the late 1800s, it was common to call African Americans "colored". It was from this that we obtained the well known organization, the NAACP. The NAACP was founded by African Americans to protect their rights and advance their cause of equality.
This term fell out of favor in time. By the founding of the United Negro College Fund in 1944, the term "negro" was more politically correct than the seemingly archaic and tainted phrase, "colored".
However, by the 1960s, "negro" was displaced by a new term, "black". There was a profusion of organizations that used the word "black", including the Black Panthers, the Black Power movement, the Black Muslims, etc. This word inspired the catchphrase, Black is beautiful.
Then in the 1970s, the word "black" fell out of favor and was replaced by the phrase "Afro American". This was captured in the name for a well known hairstyle, the "afro". However, this did not help particularly as the hairstyle went out of style at the end of the 1970s, probably contributing a somewhat stale and archaic sense to the phrase. By the early 21st century, the "Afro" is mainly a focus of jokes about hip-hugging bell bottoms and paisley shirts and disco dancing.
Jesse Jackson in the early 1980s decided that the phrase "Afro American" did not place African Americans on an equal footing with other ethnic groups in US society. For example, it was normal to encounter German Americans and Italian Americans and Swedish Americans. But African Americans were saddled with either the outdated "colored" or "negro" or even worse, the term Afro American, attached to an unfashionable hairstyle. None of these described accurately the physical origin of the ancestors of the African Americans. Jackson therefore proposed that since this group was of African ancestry, that the phrase "African American" be adopted. This suggestion was widely adopted and continues to be the favored phrase in US society.
[edit] List of ethnic slurs
There have been a long list of ethnic slurs used against black people and people with some black or African ancestry. It is not possible to do more than produce a partial list.
[edit] Use of the term "black people" for people with dark colored skins
The most common use the term "black people is to refer to people with dark colored skins.
[edit] Other uses of the term black
The word "black" has been used often to refer to many different groups of people. For example, swarthy or dark haired Scandanvians have often been called "black" historically. For example, here are some names of some Vikings; Bjorn the Black, Geirmund Hjorsson Dark-Skin, Hermund Illugason the Black, Illugi Hallkelsson the Black, Ottar Svarti (the Black), Thorolf Dark-Skin, Thorstein the Black, Harold the Black of Islay, Halfdan the Black, Rokar the Swarthy, Sandulf the Black, Harald II Svarte (the Black), Godfred V the Black, and Olaf II Odhar the Black.[1][2]
There was a prominent theory that the Irish were closer to the Africoid race. The Irish were even referred to as Black Irish. In a similar way, the phrases Black Dutch, Black Scotch, Black German have sometimes been used.
A swarthy group from the Appalachian region of the United States that is sometimes said to have some African ancestry are the Melungeons.
The people of the Caucasus region in Central Asia also are called "black".
There is a historic record of black people in china
There are many sayings about Japanese samurai that they need to have some black heritage.
The term "black" is used by African Americans to refer to people of their ethnic group and describe their culture. Some African Americans deny that this has anything to do with skin color, since some of them are very light-skinned and can pass. They align themselves with the West African peoples where many of their forebearers originated.
Jamaican immigrants in the New York City area often refer to African Americans as "blacks", even though the African Americans are usually far lighter-skinned than the Jamaican immigrants.
[edit] References
- ^ The Races of Europe, William Z. Ripley, D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1899.
- ^ The Origins of the Farthing Surname, Ben Farthing
