Re: Can you call someone "Black" these days ?

Young John wrote:

Most Americans seem to accept it, but hearing the term coming from a 6-year old makes me cringe, and no one would regard me as politically correct by any means. Had she used 'a black girl' I would have mildly scolded her not to call people by their colour, regardless of the school teaching, but I find the term 'a black' on its own extraordinarily offensive, not much different from '***'. I probably wouldn't have been as offended 10 years ago, but I really cannot bring myself now to find it in any way acceptable.

Americans accept it, because Blacks themselves prefer it. Believe it or not, it's a matter of pride. It's not offensive. The term was not coined by white folks, it was introduced by Blacks. It *is* politically correct.

Aside from the term, it sounds to me as if schools are teaching that "even though these black people are different, they can still do things like normal people and can turn out quite well". I think that's a totally counterproductive way to teach equality.

Equality is a difficult concept to teach to youngsters. Kids see all kinds of differences in people, colour, size, shapes, smartness, dumbness, just about anything you can think of. The problem is, their reasoning skills are limited during formative years. If you wait too long to introduce the concept of equality, the bias becomes ingrained. The other problem is that their parents may not agree with the teaching, and may undermine the whole idea. That's even worse.

There is an old, in use, one-room schoolhouse near here called "Coon School", which does not appear to be a placename. It surprises me every time I pass it that they still haven't changed the name.

There would be a furor if the name meant what you think. I'd be willing to bet it was named after someone with that surname...


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