Negro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 In English
2 In other languages
3 Further reading
4 See also

Negro means black in Spanish and Portuguese (Latin: niger = "black"). It is an ethnic term applied to people of African origin; some people consider it either archaic or a slur (see also nigger) except for its inclusion in the names of some organizations founded when the term had currency (e.g., the United Negro College Fund).

Near-synonyms in common use include

"black"
"dark-skinned"
"coloured" (though in South Africa this means "of mixed race")
"African" (or, in the United States, "African-American").

However, these terms are not clearly ethnic — the first three can refer other non-white groups, while the last one, being a geographic reference, could be interpreted to refer to North Africans, who are generally considered to be of a different race than sub-Saharan Africans.

[edit] In English

Around 1442, the Portuguese began to enslave Africans in Portugal. The term negro, literally meaning "black", was used by the Spanish and Portuguese to refer to dark-skinned people. From the 18th century to the mid-20th century, "negro" (later capitalized) was considered the correct and proper English word for slaves and freed slaves of sub-Saharan African origin. It fell out of favor by the 1970s in the United States, though it is still in use by a small number of older individuals (in its original sense). In current English language usage, "Negro" is generally considered acceptable in a historical context or in the name of older organizations, as in Negro spirituals or the United Negro College Fund. However, other contemporary usage of "negro" is likely to evoke racist connotations.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the last American president to utter Negroes, which, for much of his life, he pronounced "nig-ruhs" or "nigger-uhs" when using his Texas drawl. Johnson learned, while running for president, to use a more generally acceptable pronunciation of the word and before he left office, with tongue-in-cheek, he began to employ the word blacks, too^{[citation needed]}.

The related word Negroid was used by 19th and 20th century anthropologists (ending variously in the mid-to-late 20th century) to refer to a race from some parts of Africa. In the United Kingdom the term Negro is considered to be the correct description of ethnic races in sub-Saharan Africa, as much so as Caucasian for European races.

A specifically female form of the word—negress (sometimes capitalized) —was sometimes used; but, like another gender-specific word "Jewess", it has all but completely fallen from use. (An exception is its use in the titles of paintings, drawings[1] and sculptures,[2] largely as an allusion to the formerly common occurrence of the word in such titles, but such usage has dropped off dramatically.) Both are considered racist and sexist, although as with other racial, ethnic, and sexual words that are seen as pejoratives, some individuals have attempted to reclaim the word. An example of this is artist Kara Walker. [3]

[edit] In other languages

The word has had a similar history in languages such as Italian, where northern dialects still use negher to refer to black. Neger in Dutch and German had the same meaning. In the Netherlands, where there are quite a lot of black people, neger is generally not considered a slur.

In French, nègre was the word generally used in the 19th century and earlier times to describe black persons of African origin, or, sometimes, more specifically African slaves. However, it now considered as a racist word, and the word noir (literally, "black") is always used instead, except occasionally when specifically discussing slavery or colonialism, or when nègre is used as slang for ghost writer. Black (pronounced according to French rules, an instance of Franglais) is used colloquially.

In Spain, negro (note that ethnonyms are generally not capitalized in Romance languages) means "black person" in colloquial situations, but it can be considered derogatory in other situations. However, in Spanish-speaking countries, such as Argentina, Chile and Cuba, negro (negra for females) is commonly used to refer to friends or people in general, and does not have a racist connotation, but is actually a term of endearment. For example, one may say to a friend, "Oye, negrito. ¿Como estás?" (Literally, "Hey, black man, how are you doing?") In this case the diminutive negrito is used, as a term of endearment meaning "pal", or "buddy" or "friend." Negrito has come to be used to refer to a person of any ethnicity or color, and also can have a sentimental or romantic connotation similar to "sweetheart," or "dear" in English. (In the Philippines, Negrito was used for a local dark-skinned short person, living in the Negros islands among other places) In other Spanish-speaking South American countries, the word negro can also be employed in a roughly equivalent form, though it is not usually considered to be as widespread as in Argentina or Cuba (except perhaps in a limited regional and/or social context). In Cuba, moreno is used to describe a black person. In other parts of the world, such as the Philippines, it means "tanned" or "brunette".

In contemporary Portuguese, negro is the preferred polite term for a black person. Preto has a similar meaning, but is less respectful. Each of the two words can designate the color black, or a black person. However, some Portuguese people and Portuguese-speaking Africans prefer the latter, possibly because preto is the most common antonym of branco (white), while negro can sound condescending, since it is a word generally associated with higher registers. In Brazil the word is considered respectful and the apropriate manner to refer to the black race, though it is often considered impolite to take note of an individual's skin color in any context (which causes the word to be used only in reported speech or in third-person).

In the CIS countries the word негр (pronounced negr and derived from negro) commonly refers to somebody with sub-Saharan African roots and does not carry a negative connotation. The direct translation of "black" (чёрный, pronounced chjornyj) can also refer nowadays to darker-skinned people from the southern regions of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Georgia, Tajikistan, etc.); it is considered a racist insult in all cases. See also: Anti-national sentiment in Russia: Hostility towards Africans.

Controversy around the word "Negro" has spread to many languages, to a greater or lesser extent, because many have come to perceive the usage of any word similar to "Negro" with respect to black people in any language as an insult. Internationally, there is no definite consensus. While some argue that prevailing attitudes in English-speaking countries need not be taken into account when deciding what words people should use in other languages, others try to avoid using the cognates of English "Negro", having come to consider that they could be possibly offensive. Implementing this decision is not always easy, because in some languages the word for "black" is not considered to be a better alternative at all (in Russian чёрный (chornyi) (see above)), in Estonian must also means "dirty", etc.) Other options are "dark skinned" or "African". However, many languages presently do not have any widely accepted alternatives to "Negro" that are more neutral or positive in its associations. Some Spanish-speaking people have adopted the term negrito or even azulito (the diminutive of azul, the color blue) instead of negro, to avoid the negative connotation of the word in English, especially around English speakers who do not speak Spanish.

[edit] Further reading

P. A. Bruce, The Plantation Negro as a Freeman, (New York, 1889)
Edward Ingle, The Negro in the District of Columbia, (Baltimore, 1893)
W. E. B. DuBois, The Negroes of the Black Belt, (Washington, 1899)
B. T. Washington, The Future of the American Negro, (Boston, 1899)
Claude Bernard-Aubert, My Baby Is Black!, (Hollywood, 1965)
Montgomery Conference Proceedings, (Montgomery, 1900)
J. A. Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, (New York, 1902)
T. N. Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, (New York, 1904)
Library of Congress, List of Discussions of Negro Suffrage, (Washington, 1906)
W. E. Fleming, Slavery and the Race Problem in the South, (Boston, 1907)
Jackson and Davis, Industrial History of the Negro Race in America, (Richmond, 1908)
A. H. Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem, (New York, 1908)
W. P. Pickett, The Negro Problem, (New York, 1909)
E. G. Murphy, The Basis of Ascendency, (New York, 1909)
Stevenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, (New York, 1910)
A. B. Hart, The Southern South, (New York, 1910)
W. P. Livingstone, The Race Conflict, (London, 1911)
B. G. Brawley, A Short History of the American Negro, (New York, 1913)
The Negro Year Book, (Nashville, et. seq.)
"Negroes in the United States," in Bulletin of the United States Census Bureau, (Washington, 1915)
A. D. Mayo, Third Estate of the South, (Boston, 1890)
J. L. M. Curry, Education of the Negro since 1860, (Baltimore, 1894)
J. L. M. Curry, A Brief Sketch of George Peabody and a History of the Peabody Education Fund through Thirty Years, (Cambridge, 1898)
W. H. Thomas, The American Negro, (New York, 1901)
Sadler, "The Education of the Colored Race", in Special Reports of Great Britain Education Board, volume xi, (London, 1902)
Kate Brousseau, L'Education des nègres aux Etats-Unis, (Paris, 1904)
B. T. Washington, Education of the Negro, (new edition, New York, 1904)
W. E. B. DuBois, "A Select Bibliography of the American Negro for General Readers," in Atlantic University Publications, (Atlanta, 1901)
C. B. Davenport Heredity of Skin-Color in Negro-White Crosses, Carnegie Institution Publication Number 188 (1913)
C. H. Vail Socialism and the Negro Problem (1903)
M. Pickren, Negroes in the Military, (New York, 1934)