Negro
Encyclopedia
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black
ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not. The word negro means 'black' in Spanish
and Portuguese
, from the Latin
niger, 'black', probably from a Proto-Indo-European
root
*nekw-, 'to be dark', akin to *nokw- 'night'.
The usage was accepted as normal, even by people classified as Negroes, until the later Civil Rights
movement in the late 1960s. One well-known example is the identification by Martin Luther King, Jr.
of his own race as 'Negro' in his famous 1963 speech I Have a Dream
.
During the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, some African-American leaders in the United States, notably Malcolm X
, objected to the word, preferring Black, because they associated the word Negro with the long history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination that treated African Americans as second class citizens, or worse.
The term "Negro" is still used in some historical contexts, such as in the name of the United Negro College Fund
and the Negro league
in sports.
"Negro" superseded "colored
" as the most polite terminology, at a time when "black" was more offensive.
Since the late 1960s, various other roughly similar terms have been in popular usage. The latter include Black
, Black African, Afro-American (in use from the late 1960s to 1990) and African American
(used in the United States
to refer to Black Americans, peoples often referred to in the past as American Negroes).
The United States Census Bureau
announced that "Negro" would be included on the 2010 United States Census, alongside "Black" and "African-American" because some older Black Americans nevertheless self-identify with the term.
first arrived in sub-Saharan Africa
while trying to find a sea route to India. The term negro, literally meaning "black", was used by the Spanish
and Portuguese as a simple description to refer to people. From the 18th century to the late 1960s, "negro" (later capitalized) was considered to be the proper English-language term for certain people of sub-Saharan African origin.
The word "Negro" fell out of favor by the early 1970s in the United States
after the Civil Rights movement
. However, older African Americans from the earlier period of American life (when "Negro" was widely considered to be acceptable) initially found the term "Black
" more offensive than "Negro." Evidence for the acceptability of "Negro" is in the continued use the word by historical African-American organizations and institutions such as the United Negro College Fund
. In current English language
usage, "Negro" is generally considered to be acceptable in a historical context, such as baseball's Negro Leagues of the early and mid-20th century, or in the name of older organizations, as in Negro spirituals, the United Negro College Fund
or the Journal of Negro Education
. The U.S. Census now uses the grouping "Black, African-American or Negro." The term "Negro" is used in efforts to include older African Americans who more closely associate with the term.
A specifically female form of the word—Negress (sometimes capitalized) —was sometimes used; but, like "Jewess", it has all but completely fallen from use. (An exception is its unusual use in the titles of paintings, drawings http://www.artbreak.com/work/show/3000-the-negress-surveys-the-priceless-atomic-diameter-environed-by-a-three-quarter-arc-of-golden-pearls-in-summer-daniel-c-boyer and sculptures,http://www.umlaufsculpture.org/photo_galleries/sculpture_gallery/reclining_nude/ largely as an allusion to the formerly common occurrence of the word in such titles, but such usage has dropped off dramatically.) Both terms are considered to be racist and sexist
although, as with other racial, ethnic, and sexual words that are seen as pejorative, some people have tried to reclaim the words, for example, the artist Kara Walker
. http://www.gregkucera.com/walker.htm
The related word Negroid was used by 19th and 20th century racial anthropologists
. The suffix -oid means "similar to". "Negroid" as a noun was used to designate a wider or more generalized category than "Negro"; as an adjective it qualified a noun as in, for example, "negroid features".
, negro is an adjective for the color black, although preto is the most common antonym
of branco (white). In Brazil and Portugal, negro is the most respectful way to address people of Black African descent, with preto sometimes being considered politically incorrect or a racial slur.
In Spain, Mexico
and almost all of Latin-America, negro (note that ethnonym
s, names of nationalities, etc. are generally not capitalized in Romance languages) means "black person" in colloquial situations, but it can be considered to be derogatory in other situations (as in English, "black" is often used to mean irregular or undesirable, as in "black market/mercado negro"). However, in Spanish
-speaking countries such as Argentina
, Chile
, and Uruguay
where there are few people of African origin and appearance, negro (negra for females) is commonly used to refer to partners, close friends or people in general independent of skin color. In Venezuela
the word negro is similarly used, despite its large African descent population.
It is similar to the use of the word "nigga
" in urban communities in the United States. For example, one might say to a friend, "Negro ¿Como andas? (literally "Hey, black one, how are you doing?"). In this case, the diminutive negrito is used, as a term of endearment meaning "pal", "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 America
n 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 Uruguay (except perhaps in a limited regional and/or social context). In Brazil
, it heavily depends on the region. In Rio de Janeiro
, for example, where the main racial slur against black people is crioulo (literally creole
i.e. American-born African), preto/preta and pretinho/pretinha can along extremely informal situations be used the same ways as negro/negra and negrito/negrita in Spanish-speaking South American, but it heavily changes in the nearby state of São Paulo, where crioulo is considered an archaism and preto is the most used racial slur against black people, thus all kind of use of the preto word can be deemed as offensive.
Moreno
can be used as an euphemism both in Spanish and Portuguese but it also means just "tanned" or "dark-haired". People from all ethnic origins and races can be addressed by such word, but the widespread use of the word as a roughly equivalent of the English "swarthy" in Brazil made it a very colloquial term for Pardo
and all other non-White people. Generally, nevertheless nowadays it is considered politically incorrect
to address an Afro-Brazilian
by the term moreno, as if it was a subtle attempt of erasing their blackness
by calling them "swarthy one" (the historical stigma of being Black or partially Black in Brazil made many people being "racially promoted" from Black to Pardo and from Pardo to White, and this can be seen as a perpetuation of this process). Still, this use for westernized Amerindians, mixed-race people of Amerindian and European descent, multiracial afrodescendants and Asian people
with dark complexions is entirely not offensive. Similar trends in the Hispanic world are not so well-noticed.
In Haitian Creole, the word nèg, derived from the French
"nègre", refers to a dark-skinned man; it can also be used for any man, regardless of skin color, roughly like "guy" or "dude" in American English.
The Dutch word
, "neger" is generally (but not universally) considered to be a neutral one, or at least less negative than "zwarte" (black one).
In German
, Neger was considered to be a neutral term for black people, but gradually fell out of fashion since the 1970s. Neger is now mostly thought to be derogatory or racist. The terms Schwarzer (black person), Farbiger (colored person) or Afrikaner/Afro-Amerikaner (African/Afro-American) are commonly used, and the obsolete Mohr (from Latin morus, black) survives in advertising. There is also a kind of sweet traditionally referred to as "Negerkuss" (literally "negro kiss").
In Hungarian
, néger (possibly originates in its German equivalent) is still considered to be the most neutral term (together with afro-amerikai which is rarely used), while other words such as fekete (black person) or színesbőrű (colored person) are somewhat offensive. However, the term nigger is widely considered to be extremely pejorative
.
In Russia
, the term "негр" (negr) was commonly used in the Soviet period without any negative connotation, and its use continues in this neutral sense. In modern Russian media, the word is used somewhat less frequently - "африканцы" ("Africans") or "афро-американцы" ("Afro-Americans") are used instead, depending on the situation), but is still common in oral speech. The word "black" (чёрный) as a noun used as a form of address is pejorative, although it is primarily used with respect to peoples of the Caucasus, natives of Central Asia
, and not black people
. The word "black" (чёрный) as an adjective is also used in a neutral sense and means the same as "негр" (negr), e.g. "чёрные американцы" (black Americans), "чёрное население" (the black population), etc. Other alternatives to "негр" are темнокожий (temnokozhiy - "dark-skinned"), чернокожий (chernokozhiy - "black-skinned"). These two are used as both nouns and adjectives.
In the Italian language
, negro was used as a neutral term until the end of the 60's. Nowadays the word is considered offensive in some contexts; if used with a clear offensive intention it may be punished by law. Joking, non offensive words are: moretto, moretta. Neutral words to define a black or dark-skinned person are nero (literally "black") or di colore (coloured - or literally 'of colour').
In Swedish
, neger used to be considered a neutral term for black people, but the term has gradually fallen out of favour through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Today the neutral term to define a black person is svart ("black"). There is a Swedish
pastry
traditionally called negerboll
(literally "negro ball"). Due to its possible offensive character, the name has fallen out of favor in for example new cooking books, being replaced by "Chokladboll" (Chocolate Ball), though it is still used colloquially.
In Denmark
, "Neger" is still considered a neutral word that most of the population use when describing a person of African descent.
In the Finnish language
the word neekeri (negro) was considered a neutral term for black people. Very few — if literally any — black people lived in Finland before the 1980s. In 2002 neekeri' s definition was changed from perceived as derogatory by some to generally derogatory in line with ryssä (Ruskie) and hurri (Swedish-speaking Finn) in Kielitoimiston sanakirja. Also, there was a popular Finnish
pastry
called Neekerinsuukko (lit. "negro's kiss"). The manufacturer changed the name to Brunbergin suukko ("Brunberg's kiss") in 2001. Today, neutral terms to define a black person include musta ("black"), tumma (lit. "dark-shaded"), tummaihoinen ("dark-skinned") and mustaihoinen ("black-skinned"). A study conducted among native Finns found that 90 % of research subjects considered the terms ”neekeri”, ”ryssä” ja ”manne” (term referring to Finnish Roma) most derogatory names for ethnic minorities.
In the French language
, the positive concept of negritude
was developed by the Senegalese politician Léopold Sédar Senghor
.
The word for a black man in the Irish language
is fear gorm, which literally means "blue man".
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not. The word negro means 'black' in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
niger, 'black', probably from a Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European may refer to:*Proto-Indo-European language, the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages.*Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language....
root
Proto-Indo-European root
The roots of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language are basic parts of words that carry a lexical meaning, so-called morphemes. PIE roots always have verbal meaning like "to eat" or "to run", as opposed to nouns , adjectives , or other parts of speech. Roots never occur alone in the language...
*nekw-, 'to be dark', akin to *nokw- 'night'.
The usage was accepted as normal, even by people classified as Negroes, until the later Civil Rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
movement in the late 1960s. One well-known example is the identification by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
of his own race as 'Negro' in his famous 1963 speech I Have a Dream
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination...
.
During the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, some African-American leaders in the United States, notably Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
, objected to the word, preferring Black, because they associated the word Negro with the long history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination that treated African Americans as second class citizens, or worse.
The term "Negro" is still used in some historical contexts, such as in the name of the United Negro College Fund
United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund is an American philanthropic organization that fundraises college tuition money for black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically black colleges and universities. The UNCF was incorporated on April 25, 1944 by Frederick D. Patterson , Mary...
and the Negro league
Negro league baseball
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...
in sports.
"Negro" superseded "colored
Colored
Colored is a term once widely used in the United States to describe black people and Native Americans...
" as the most polite terminology, at a time when "black" was more offensive.
Since the late 1960s, various other roughly similar terms have been in popular usage. The latter include Black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
, Black African, Afro-American (in use from the late 1960s to 1990) and African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
(used in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to refer to Black Americans, peoples often referred to in the past as American Negroes).
The United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
announced that "Negro" would be included on the 2010 United States Census, alongside "Black" and "African-American" because some older Black Americans nevertheless self-identify with the term.
In English
Around 1442 the PortuguesePortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
first arrived in sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
while trying to find a sea route to India. The term negro, literally meaning "black", was used by the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portuguese as a simple description to refer to people. From the 18th century to the late 1960s, "negro" (later capitalized) was considered to be the proper English-language term for certain people of sub-Saharan African origin.
The word "Negro" fell out of favor by the early 1970s in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after the Civil Rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
. However, older African Americans from the earlier period of American life (when "Negro" was widely considered to be acceptable) initially found the term "Black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
" more offensive than "Negro." Evidence for the acceptability of "Negro" is in the continued use the word by historical African-American organizations and institutions such as the United Negro College Fund
United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund is an American philanthropic organization that fundraises college tuition money for black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically black colleges and universities. The UNCF was incorporated on April 25, 1944 by Frederick D. Patterson , Mary...
. In current English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
usage, "Negro" is generally considered to be acceptable in a historical context, such as baseball's Negro Leagues of the early and mid-20th century, or in the name of older organizations, as in Negro spirituals, the United Negro College Fund
United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund is an American philanthropic organization that fundraises college tuition money for black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically black colleges and universities. The UNCF was incorporated on April 25, 1944 by Frederick D. Patterson , Mary...
or the Journal of Negro Education
Journal of Negro Education
The Journal of Negro Education is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Howard University established in 1932...
. The U.S. Census now uses the grouping "Black, African-American or Negro." The term "Negro" is used in efforts to include older African Americans who more closely associate with the term.
A specifically female form of the word—Negress (sometimes capitalized) —was sometimes used; but, like "Jewess", it has all but completely fallen from use. (An exception is its unusual use in the titles of paintings, drawings http://www.artbreak.com/work/show/3000-the-negress-surveys-the-priceless-atomic-diameter-environed-by-a-three-quarter-arc-of-golden-pearls-in-summer-daniel-c-boyer and sculptures,http://www.umlaufsculpture.org/photo_galleries/sculpture_gallery/reclining_nude/ largely as an allusion to the formerly common occurrence of the word in such titles, but such usage has dropped off dramatically.) Both terms are considered to be racist and sexist
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
although, as with other racial, ethnic, and sexual words that are seen as pejorative, some people have tried to reclaim the words, for example, the artist Kara Walker
Kara Walker
Kara Walker is a contemporary African American artist who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes, such as The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts.-Biography:Walker was born in...
. http://www.gregkucera.com/walker.htm
The related word Negroid was used by 19th and 20th century racial anthropologists
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
. The suffix -oid means "similar to". "Negroid" as a noun was used to designate a wider or more generalized category than "Negro"; as an adjective it qualified a noun as in, for example, "negroid features".
In other languages
In PortuguesePortuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, negro is an adjective for the color black, although preto is the most common antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
of branco (white). In Brazil and Portugal, negro is the most respectful way to address people of Black African descent, with preto sometimes being considered politically incorrect or a racial slur.
In Spain, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and almost all of Latin-America, negro (note that ethnonym
Ethnonym
An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...
s, names of nationalities, etc. are generally not capitalized in Romance languages) means "black person" in colloquial situations, but it can be considered to be derogatory in other situations (as in English, "black" is often used to mean irregular or undesirable, as in "black market/mercado negro"). However, in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-speaking countries such as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
where there are few people of African origin and appearance, negro (negra for females) is commonly used to refer to partners, close friends or people in general independent of skin color. In Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
the word negro is similarly used, despite its large African descent population.
It is similar to the use of the word "nigga
Nigga
Nigga is a term used in African American Vernacular English that began as an eye dialect form of the word nigger .- Use in language :In practice, its use and meaning are...
" in urban communities in the United States. For example, one might say to a friend, "Negro ¿Como andas? (literally "Hey, black one, how are you doing?"). In this case, the diminutive negrito is used, as a term of endearment meaning "pal", "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
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, negrito
Negrito
The Negrito are a class of several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia.Their current populations include 12 Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, six Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ati, and 30 other peoples of the Philippines....
was used for a local dark-skinned short person, living in the Negros
Negros
Negros is an island of the Philippines located in the Visayas, at . It is the third largest island in the country, with a land area of 13,328 km²...
islands among other places).
In other Spanish-speaking South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n 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 Uruguay (except perhaps in a limited regional and/or social context). In Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, it heavily depends on the region. In Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro (state)
Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...
, for example, where the main racial slur against black people is crioulo (literally creole
Creole
- Languages :A Creole language is a stable, full-fledged language that originated from a pidgin or combination of other languages.Creole languages subgroups may include:* Arabic-based creole languages* Dutch-based creole languages...
i.e. American-born African), preto/preta and pretinho/pretinha can along extremely informal situations be used the same ways as negro/negra and negrito/negrita in Spanish-speaking South American, but it heavily changes in the nearby state of São Paulo, where crioulo is considered an archaism and preto is the most used racial slur against black people, thus all kind of use of the preto word can be deemed as offensive.
Moreno
Moreno
-Places:*Moreno, Pernambuco, city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco*Perito Moreno Glacier, glacier in Patagonia, Argentina*Perito Moreno National Park, on the northwest of the Santa Cruz Province, Argentina...
can be used as an euphemism both in Spanish and Portuguese but it also means just "tanned" or "dark-haired". People from all ethnic origins and races can be addressed by such word, but the widespread use of the word as a roughly equivalent of the English "swarthy" in Brazil made it a very colloquial term for Pardo
Pardo
In Brazil, Pardo is a race/colour category used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in Brazilian censuses. It is a Portuguese word that encompasses various shades of brown, but is usually translated as "grayish-brown"...
and all other non-White people. Generally, nevertheless nowadays it is considered politically incorrect
Politically incorrect
The phrase "politically incorrect" may refer to:* Someone or something which does not meet a standard of political correctness* Politically Incorrect, a late-night U.S. political talk show* Politically Incorrect, a German political blog...
to address an Afro-Brazilian
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
by the term moreno, as if it was a subtle attempt of erasing their blackness
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
by calling them "swarthy one" (the historical stigma of being Black or partially Black in Brazil made many people being "racially promoted" from Black to Pardo and from Pardo to White, and this can be seen as a perpetuation of this process). Still, this use for westernized Amerindians, mixed-race people of Amerindian and European descent, multiracial afrodescendants and Asian people
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
with dark complexions is entirely not offensive. Similar trends in the Hispanic world are not so well-noticed.
In Haitian Creole, the word nèg, derived from the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
"nègre", refers to a dark-skinned man; it can also be used for any man, regardless of skin color, roughly like "guy" or "dude" in American English.
The Dutch word
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, "neger" is generally (but not universally) considered to be a neutral one, or at least less negative than "zwarte" (black one).
In German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Neger was considered to be a neutral term for black people, but gradually fell out of fashion since the 1970s. Neger is now mostly thought to be derogatory or racist. The terms Schwarzer (black person), Farbiger (colored person) or Afrikaner/Afro-Amerikaner (African/Afro-American) are commonly used, and the obsolete Mohr (from Latin morus, black) survives in advertising. There is also a kind of sweet traditionally referred to as "Negerkuss" (literally "negro kiss").
In Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, néger (possibly originates in its German equivalent) is still considered to be the most neutral term (together with afro-amerikai which is rarely used), while other words such as fekete (black person) or színesbőrű (colored person) are somewhat offensive. However, the term nigger is widely considered to be extremely pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
.
In Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, the term "негр" (negr) was commonly used in the Soviet period without any negative connotation, and its use continues in this neutral sense. In modern Russian media, the word is used somewhat less frequently - "африканцы" ("Africans") or "афро-американцы" ("Afro-Americans") are used instead, depending on the situation), but is still common in oral speech. The word "black" (чёрный) as a noun used as a form of address is pejorative, although it is primarily used with respect to peoples of the Caucasus, natives of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, and not black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
. The word "black" (чёрный) as an adjective is also used in a neutral sense and means the same as "негр" (negr), e.g. "чёрные американцы" (black Americans), "чёрное население" (the black population), etc. Other alternatives to "негр" are темнокожий (temnokozhiy - "dark-skinned"), чернокожий (chernokozhiy - "black-skinned"). These two are used as both nouns and adjectives.
In the Italian language
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, negro was used as a neutral term until the end of the 60's. Nowadays the word is considered offensive in some contexts; if used with a clear offensive intention it may be punished by law. Joking, non offensive words are: moretto, moretta. Neutral words to define a black or dark-skinned person are nero (literally "black") or di colore (coloured - or literally 'of colour').
In Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, neger used to be considered a neutral term for black people, but the term has gradually fallen out of favour through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Today the neutral term to define a black person is svart ("black"). There is a Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
pastry
Pastry
Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked products are called "pastries."...
traditionally called negerboll
Chokladboll
Chokladboll is a popular Swedish pastry.The chokladboll is usually slightly smaller than a golfball. The chokladboll consists of oatmeal, sugar, coffee, cocoa, butter, and sometimes a pinch of vanilla sugar, which is mixed to a compact mass. Balls are formed and then rolled in nib sugar, shredded...
(literally "negro ball"). Due to its possible offensive character, the name has fallen out of favor in for example new cooking books, being replaced by "Chokladboll" (Chocolate Ball), though it is still used colloquially.
In Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, "Neger" is still considered a neutral word that most of the population use when describing a person of African descent.
In the Finnish language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
the word neekeri (negro) was considered a neutral term for black people. Very few — if literally any — black people lived in Finland before the 1980s. In 2002 neekeri
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
pastry
Pastry
Pastry is the name given to various kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder and/or eggs. Small cakes, tarts and other sweet baked products are called "pastries."...
called Neekerinsuukko (lit. "negro's kiss"). The manufacturer changed the name to Brunbergin suukko ("Brunberg's kiss") in 2001. Today, neutral terms to define a black person include musta ("black"), tumma (lit. "dark-shaded"), tummaihoinen ("dark-skinned") and mustaihoinen ("black-skinned"). A study conducted among native Finns found that 90 % of research subjects considered the terms ”neekeri”, ”ryssä” ja ”manne” (term referring to Finnish Roma) most derogatory names for ethnic minorities.
In the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, the positive concept of negritude
Négritude
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politiciansin France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude...
was developed by the Senegalese politician Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal . Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese...
.
The word for a black man in the Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
is fear gorm, which literally means "blue man".
See also
- African AmericanAfrican AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
- Black peopleBlack peopleThe term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
- Negroid
- ZanjZanjZanj was a name used by medieval Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion of the coast of East Africa and its inhabitants, Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj...
- Human skin colorHuman skin colorHuman skin color is primarily due to the presence of melanin in the skin. Skin color ranges from almost black to white with a pinkish tinge due to blood vessels underneath. Variation in natural skin color is mainly due to genetics, although the evolutionary causes are not completely certain...
- Race (classification of human beings)
- Free NegroFree NegroA free Negro or free black is the term used prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States to describe African Americans who were not slaves. Almost all African Americans came to the United States as slaves, but from the earliest days of American slavery, slaveholders set men and women free...
- CreoleCreole peoplesThe term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
- MulattoMulattoMulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
- QuadroonQuadroonQuadroon, and the associated words octoroon and quintroon are terms that, historically, were applied to define the ancestry of people of mixed-race, generally of African and Caucasian ancestry, but also, within Australia, to those of Aboriginal and Caucasian ancestry...
- ColouredColouredIn the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
, ColoredColoredColored is a term once widely used in the United States to describe black people and Native Americans... - NiggerNiggerNigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
- Euphemism treadmill
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. Du Bois, The Negroes of the Black Belt, (Washington, 1899)
- B. T. WashingtonBooker T. WashingtonBooker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
, 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. PageThomas Nelson PageThomas Nelson Page was a lawyer and American writer. He also served as the U.S. ambassador to Italy during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson, including the important period of World War I.-Biography:...
, 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, ISBN 0-8371-2200-7 (New York, 1909)
- E. G. MurphyEdgar Gardner MurphyEdgar Gardner Murphy was an American clergyman and author.He was born at Fort Smith, Arkansas, graduated from the University of the South in 1889, and served as a priest of the Episcopal Church for twelve years. After 1903, he worked exclusively in educational and social work...
, The Basis of Ascendency, (New York, 1909) - Stevenson, Race Distinctions in American Law, (New York, 1910)
- A. B. HartAlbert Bushnell HartAlbert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D. , was an American historian, writer, and teacher. One of the first generation of professionally trained historians in the United States, a prolific author and editor of historical works, Albert Bushnell Hart became, as Samuel Eliot Morison described him, "The Grand Old...
, 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. MayoAmory Dwight MayoMayo, Amory Dwight , Unitarian clergyman and educator, was born in Warwick, Massachusetts, the son of Amory Mayo and Sophronia Cobb. Mayo enrolled at in 1843.-Education and Health Problems:...
, Third Estate of the South, (Boston, 1890) - J. L. M. CurryJabez Lamar Monroe CurryJabez Lamar Monroe Curry was a lawyer, soldier, U.S. Congressman, college professor and administrator, diplomat, and officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.-Biography:...
, Education of the Negro since 1860, (Baltimore, 1894) - J. L. M. CurryJabez Lamar Monroe CurryJabez Lamar Monroe Curry was a lawyer, soldier, U.S. Congressman, college professor and administrator, diplomat, and officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.-Biography:...
, A Brief Sketch of George PeabodyGeorge PeabodyGeorge Peabody was an American-British entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Peabody Trust in Britain and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and was responsible for many other charitable initiatives.-Biography:...
and a History of the Peabody Education FundPeabody Education FundFounded of necessity due to damage caused largely by the American Civil War, the Peabody Education Fund was established by George Peabody in 1867 for the purpose of promoting "intellectual, moral, and industrial education in the most destitute portion of the Southern States." The gift of...
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. WashingtonBooker T. WashingtonBooker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
, Education of the Negro, (new edition, New York, 1904) - W. E. B. Du Bois, "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. VailCharles Henry VailCharles Henry Vail was an American Universalist clergyman and Christian socialist political activist and writer. Vail is best remembered as the first National Organizer of the Socialist Party of America and as a candidate of that party for Governor of New Jersey.-Early years:Charles H. Vail was...
Socialism and the Negro Problem (1903)