Word: negroness
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...word Negro to describe a black person has largely fallen out of polite conversation - except on the U.S. Census questionnaire. There, under "What is this person's race?" is an option that reads, "Black, African Am., or Negro." That has raised the ire of certain black activists and politicians as the Census Bureau gears up to mail out its once-a-decade questionnaires. The controversy has been cast by many as an instance of a tone-deaf agency not keeping up with the times. In actuality, the flash point represents a much larger theme: the often contentious way the Census...
...immediate reason the word Negro is on the Census is simple enough: in the 2000 Census, more than 56,000 people wrote in Negro to describe their identity - even though it was already on the form. Some people, it seems, still strongly identify with the term, which used to be a perfectly polite designation. To blindly delete it is to risk incorrectly counting the unknown number of (presumably older) black Americans who identify with the term. (See rare photos at home of Martin Luther King...
...Census Bureau is aware that times are changing - and not just when it comes to the word Negro. As part of the 2010 Census, the bureau will test 15 major changes to questions about race and Hispanic origin. For each, approximately 30,000 households will receive a slightly different questionnaire so that demographers and statisticians can use data - along with follow-up interviews - to decide if the modification helps or hurts the accuracy and consistency of information collected. "We hope this will help us better understand the way people identify with these concepts," says Nicholas Jones, chief of the Census...
That is true even when the way a person wishes to be known is as a Negro - at least for the time being. Considering that older black people are more likely to use the term, Negro will almost surely eventually come off the Census. But it is important to remember that when it does, it will not be a simple reaction to changing social mores. In 1970 the Census changed its black category from "Negro" to "Negro or Black." The Federal Government sent a form to every U.S. household and effectively said, We have a new way of thinking about...
Gates began by reading excerpts from his memoir, including the preface in which he explained his compulsion to write “Colored People” as an attempt to preserve the rich memories of growing up colored in the 1950’s, negro in the early 60’s, and black in the later 60’s in small-town Piedmont, West Virginia, with a family who stressed the importance of education...