Negro

Negro means "black" in Spanish, Portuguese and ancient Italian languages, being derived from the Latin word niger of the same meaning.

Europeans began to enslave Africans in Portugal about 1442. Negro was the descriptive assigned by Prince Henry the Navigator, the fifth son of King John I of Portugal. The term "negro", literally "black," was used by the Spanish and Portuguese to refer to black Africans and people with that heritage. The term was used broadly, including, for example, Berbers from North Africa.

From the 18th century to the mid-20th century, "negro" (later capitalized) was considered the correct and proper term for slaves and freed slaves. It fell out of favor by the 1970s in the United States. In current English language usage, "Negro" generally is considered acceptable in a historical context or in the name of older organizations, as in the United Negro College Fund, and is used more commonly by those born before the post World War II baby boom.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the last American president to publicly refer to the African American population as Negroes, which, for much of his life, he pronounced "nig-ruhs", widely considered an insult by African Americans. Johnson learned, while running for president, to use a more generally acceptable pronunciation of the word and before he left office, he had begun to employ the word blacks, too.

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 of people from Africa.

The word has had a similar history in languages such as Italian. Today in Italy, using the term "negro" to refer to a black person would be considered a racist insult, suggestive of fascist opinions. However, in Portuguese, the socially accepted term nowadays is "negro" (literally, "black"), while "preto" (meaning, in this context, "black-skinned") usually is seen as a possible insult because of societal color bias. But, today some Portuguese people and Portuguese speaking Africans prefer the term preto in opposition of branco (white), than negro (that also can mean "dirty").

In French, nègre was the word generally used in the 19th century and earlier times to describe blacks persons of African origin. However, it now has heavy colonial undertones, 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.

In Argentina and Cuba, negro (negra for females) is a word commonly usually used to refer to friends or people in general, and does not have a racist connotation. For example, one may say to a friend, "Oye, negrito. ¿Como estás?" Literally, that translates as, "Hey, black man, how are you doin'?" Here, "negro" is used in its diminutive form "negrito", 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 for a black person. In other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, like the Philippines, moreno means just "tanned" or brunette.

In the Post-Soviet states the word negr (derived from negro) commonly refers to somebody with the African ethnic roots. Because the majority of the population has seen such people only on television or in films, the word negr does not have any negative aftertaste. However, perhaps due to Western influences, there is a tendency in mass media to move away from using this word towards more politically correct terms such as "African". The direct translation of "black" (chjornyj) can also refer nowadays to darker-skinned Caucasian people from the southern regions of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Georgia, Tajikistan, etc.); it is considered a racist insult in all cases. The word "coloured" (cvetnoj) is also socially unacceptable in most layers of society.

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 a possible form of insult. Internationally, there is no definite consensus. While some argue that prevailing attitudes in the United States of America (and elsewhere) should not always be taken into account when deciding what words people should use in other languages, others try to avoid using "Negro" or its variants, as they have come to consider that it 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 chornyi is a name for minorities like Chechens, 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 for an alternative to "Negro" that is 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 insulting connotation of the word in English, especially around English-speaking people who do not know Spanish.

A specifically female form of the word—negress—was sometimes used; but, like another gender-specific word "Jewess", it has all but completely fallen from use. Both are considered racist and sexist.

As with other racial, ethnic, and sexual words that are seen as pejoratives, some individuals have tried "reclaiming" the word. An example of this is artist Kara Walker. [1] In the US, some African-Americans may use the term playfully among themselves (as in, "Negro, please!"), especially throughout the American South and other areas with a higher percentage of African-Americans. When used in such a manner, it is often in jest, the word pronounced in an exaggerated fashion and spelled "knee-grow". Although this usage is similar to that of the word nigga, it generally is not considered offensive.

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)
• 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)

See also

• African American
• Black people
• Coloured, Colored
• Creole
• Mulatto
• Quadroon
• Race