Why ‘negro’ and ‘colored’ still linger on even today

As a continuation from last week’s column “ ‘Black table’ article controversy answered,” the 2007 writer of the article “Why is there always a ‘black table’ at Sodexho?” mentioned traditional black educational programs and asked why they have the words “negro” and “colored” in their titles and how that contradicts the steps taken to eliminate all derogatory words related to blacks.

America has become more diverse in that we have a lot of people representing countries from around the world, and we all live with equal rights and opportunities given to us by the government. The rights granted to us by the U.S. Constitution ensure equality between every man and women in this country. Not more than 50 years ago, this country was beginning the process to abide by the laws we live by today. Not more than 50 years ago blacks were referred to as coloreds and negroes, and discriminated against.

America has removed a lot of the derogatory words that blacks were once referred to. More than 50 years ago, when The United Negro College Fund and The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People were created, negro and colored were words that blacks were called. Now that blacks do not have to be called negro or colored, and have the choice to be called black or African-American, the UNCF and the NAACP can change negro and colored but chose not to, to remind us of where we have come from and to keep credibility.

I ask that people not see this as ignorance. Minorities have come a long way but that does not mean we will forget the past and change the names of historic and accomplished organizations because the nation has changed and accepted political correct ideals.

Posted by Alexandria Bell on Mar 20 2010. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry