I know we've talked about politically correct words before and specifically about "black" versus "African-American." The last description does not even accurately describe some people. Leonard Pitts wrote an interesting article that was generally about racism. He began it with a definition from the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary:

black\blak\adjective
1: of the color black;
2: of or relating to the African American people;
3: dirty, soiled;
4: thoroughly sinister or evil;
5: connected with the supernatural and especially the devil

No wonder African-Americans don't like to use the word "black." I hadn't really thought of it that way.

Black seems to always have sinister or malignant connotations. "Black ops" in the spy realm, "blacklist" someone, do something to give a group a "black eye," and "black ball" someone from an organizaion. I'm sure there are others.

Yet there are instances wherein white is the negative force, as in the pale rider of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Shall I be "PC" and now refer to people as high-melanin, medium-melanin, and low-melanin?

It's the horses which are of color. One of the horsemen of the Apocalypse was riding a white horse (ιππος λευκος hippos leukos) and another was riding a pale horse (ιππος χλωρος hippos khlōros) which was named death (θανατος thanatos). The color khlōros in Greek was a kind of yellowish-green and is related to English yellow. Words like chlorophyll and chlorine, which are derived from the ISV, also come from the Greek root. The other two were riding black (μελας melas) and red (πυρρος purros, actually 'fire; red') horse. All four of the horsemen are none too nice. The Romans had two words for black, ater and niger, 'dead black' and 'shiny black' respectively. Same for white, albus and candidus 'dead white' and 'shiny white; bright'.

To be in the black is a good thing, financially.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
Same for white, albus 'dead white'

Whatever shall Richard say about Albion then?

Albion

Latin albus is related to Alps, Albania, Albion, and Albany; also to English elf.

Yet it wasn't so long ago that "black" was the PC term to use. Black Power, the Black Panthers, etc.

Even blacksploitation.

Terms with the word "black" are almost overwhelmingly negative. "In the black" is the only positive one I have seen. Here are some others.

blacken (slander, malign)
In the black (good)
Black acid (coffee)
Black Annie (a whip)
Black bag (espionage)
Black beauty (meth)
Black Betty (liquor)
Blackbird (a black person, to deal in slavery)
Black coat, gown (clergyman)
Blackball
Black cloud
Black duck (American Indian)
Black Death
Black eye
Black gang (engine room workers)
Blackguard
Black hat (villain)
Blackhearted
Black hole
Black ice
Blackjack (a sap)
Blackleg (gambler)
Blacklist
Black lung
Black magic
Black Maria (police car)
Blackmail
Black mark
Black market
Black out
Black Power
Black rose (VD)
Black shirt
Black sheep
Black tie
Blackwater fever
Black widow

Thanks, Proofreader. We have now been effectively blacklisted.

In a magazine, probably The New Yorker, I saw a cartoon that I like. A huge truck is making a delivery to the Department of Corrections. The logo on the side of the truck?

WHITE OUT.

I thought this comment in the article was interesting.

quote:

"Apparently, deep-seated racial misgivings" is the AP's preferred euphemism for racism.

Surely black gold (also known as Texas Tea) is a good thing, no?

Of course black tends to have negative connotations--people are afraid of the dark, not of the daylight.

The messed up part of all this is that there isn't a human being out there that is naturally black in color. Melanin is brown, baby.

Is the Zebra a black animal with white stripes or a black animal with white stripes??

Then there's the black box as used in planes; apparently it's not coloured black, but day-glo orange.

A black guy walks into a bar with a beautiful parrot on his shoulder. "Wow," says the bartender. "That is really something. Where'd you get it?"

"Africa," says the parrot.

Black Tie has no negative connotations in the UK. It simply means that the dress code for a function is DJ (Dinner Jacket - known in the USA, for some unfathomable reason, as a "tuxedo"), as opposed to White Tie which means evening dress (white tie and tails).

quote:

Black Tie has no negative connotations in the UK.

Or here. I just threw it in to see if anyone would actually read the list.

Edited for egregious typo.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Proofreader>,

The word tuxedo for a formal outfit derives from the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo Park, New York. It was originally a kind of smoking jacket (from the UK) that was an informal alternative to white tie and tails. After being brought to the States, it came to be known in the UK as dinner jacket. The French still refer to a tux as le smoking.

I usually say "African-American" because that is what my customers seem to prefer to hear from a white woman. We still help students find information for reports on African-American people during Black History Month. I also hear people in da hood calling one another niggers. I would NEVER use that term.

Once, several years ago, one of my regular customers (an African American man who loves to read) came in and said "Do you have a copy of the book Nigger?"

I responded by faking shock and saying "What did you call me?"

I let him be slightly flustered for only a few seconds before grinning and showing him where the book was. He's been a staunch supporter of the library (and me) ever since.

In South Africa (where I live) the word 'black' has been thoroughly reclaimed. People refer to themselves as black, affirmative action is called ``black economic empowerment'' and companies proudly proclaim themselves ``black owned''.

Interestingly, it is far more acceptable as an adjective than as a noun; it is fine to say ``he is a black man'' or even ``not that John, black John!'' but referring to people as ``blacks'' will draw frowns. Not so for ``whites''. So we've developed a weirdly asymmetric political parlance: ``black people'' and ``whites''.

Of course, along with this South Africans have our unique usage of ``coloured'' to mean mixed race. Referring to a friend of mine as ``coloured'' very nearly landed me in big trouble in the States, but to him it is simply his racial identity.

I suppose it is similar to the different usage of words like ``mulatto'' in Brazil (where Barack Obama is called that) and the US, where it is tabu.