In the English language, the term negro (or sometimes negress for a female) is a term historically used to refer to people of Black people heritage. The term negro means the color black in Spanish and Portuguese (from latin language niger), where English took it from.[ The term can be viewed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region or country where it is used, as well as the time period and context in which it is applied. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe.
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In English
Around 1442, the Portuguese first arrived in Southern Africa while trying to find a sea route to India.
From the 18th century to the late 1960s, negro (later capitalized) was considered to be the proper English language term for people of black African origin. According to Oxford Dictionaries, use of the word "now seems out of date or even offensive in both British and US English".
A specifically female form of the word, negress (sometimes capitalized), was occasionally used. However, like Jews, it has completely fallen out of use.
Negroid was used within physical anthropology to denote one of the three purported races of humankind, alongside Caucasoid race and Mongoloid. The suffix "" 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".
United States
Negro superseded colored as the most polite word for African Americans at a time when black was considered more offensive.[Nguyen, Elizabeth. "Origins of Black History Month", Spartan Daily, Campus News. San Jose State University. 24 February 2004. Accessed 12 April 2008. ] In 17th-century colonial America, the term Negro had been also, according to one historian, used to describe Native Americans.[ ] The Negro Academy was founded in 1897, to support liberal arts education. Marcus Garvey used the word in the names of black nationalist and Pan-Africanism organizations such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association (founded 1914), the Negro World (1918), the Negro Factories Corporation (1919), and the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World (1920). W. E. B. Du Bois and Dr. Carter G. Woodson used it in the titles of their non-fiction books, The Negro (1915) and The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933) respectively. Du Bois also used in the titles of his books The Study of the Negro Problems (1898) and The Philadelphia Negro (1899). Negro was accepted as normal, both as exonym and endonym, until the late 1960s, after the later Civil Rights Movement. One example is Martin Luther King Jr. self-identification as Negro in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech of 1963.
However, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the word Negro began to be criticized as having been imposed by white people, and having connotations of racial subservience and Uncle Tomism. The term Black, in contrast, denoted pride, power, and a rejection of the past. It took root first in more militant groups such as the Black Muslims and Black Panthers, and by 1967, SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael pushed for the abandonment of Negro. After the Newark riots in the summer of 1967, one third to one half of young Black males polled in Newark self-identified as Black. The term coexisted for a while with Negro, with the newer term initially referring only to progressive or radical Blacks, while Negro was used more for the Black establishment.[Liz Mazucci, " Going Back to Our Own: Interpreting Malcolm X's Transition From 'Black Asiatic' to 'Afro-American'", Souls 7(1), 2005, pp. 66–83.]
Since the late 1960s, various other terms have been more widespread in popular usage. These include Black people, Black African, Afro-American (in use from the late 1960s to 1990) and African American.[Christopher H. Foreman, The African-American predicament, Brookings Institution Press, 1999, p. 99.] The word Negro fell out of favor by the early 1970s and major media including Associated Press and The New York Times stopped using it that decade.
The term Negro is still used in some historical contexts, such as the songs known as Negro spirituals, the Negro leagues of baseball in the early and mid-20th century, and organizations such as the United Negro College Fund.
African-American linguist John McWhorter has bemoaned attacks on the use of Negro in "utterances or written reproductions of the word when referring to older texts and titles". He cites reports that performances or publishing of certain works (William L. Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, and an anthology of Norman Mailer's works) have been avoided, "out of wariness of the word 'Negro'” used in titles; and of "two cases" between 2020-2021 "of white college professors having complaints filed against them by students for using the word 'Negro' in class when quoting older texts."
The United States Census Bureau included Negro on the 2010 Census, alongside Black and African-American, because some older black Americans still self-identify with the term.[ U.S. Census Bureau interactive form, Question 9. Accessed 7 January 2010. ][ CBS New York Local News. Accessed 7 January 2010. ]
Liberia
The constitution of Liberia limits Liberian nationality to Negro people (see also Liberian nationality law).
In other languages
Spanish language
In Spanish language, negro (feminine negra) is most commonly used for the color black, but it can also be used to describe people with dark-colored skin. In Spain, Mexico, and almost all of Latin America, negro (lower-cased, as are generally not capitalized in Romance languages) means just 'black colour' and does not refer by itself to any ethnic or race unless further context is provided. As in English, this Spanish word is often used figuratively and negatively, to mean 'irregular' or 'undesirable', as in mercado negro ('black market'). However, in most Spanish-speaking countries, negro and negra are commonly as a form of endearment, when used to refer to partners or close friends.[" negro" in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española]
Spanish East Indies
In the Philippines, which historically had almost no contact with the Atlantic slave trade, the Spanish-derived term negro (feminine negra) is still commonly used to refer to black people, as well as to people with dark-colored skin (both native and foreign). As in Spanish usage, it has no negative connotations when referring to black people. However, it can be mildly pejorative when referring to the skin color of other native Filipinos due to traditional beauty standards. The use of the term for the color black is restricted to Spanish phrases or nouns.
Negrito (feminine negrita) is also a term used in the Philippines to refer to the various darker-skinned native ethnic groups that partially descended from early Australo-Melanesian migrations. These groups include the Aeta people, Ati people, Mamanwa people, and the Batak, among others. Despite physical appearances, they all speak Austronesian languages and are genetically related to other Austronesian Filipinos. The island of Negros is named after them.[Snow, Philip. The Star Raft: China's Encounter With Africa. Cornell Univ. Press, 1989 ()] However, the appropriateness of using the word to bundle people of similar physical appearances has been questioned as genetic evidence show they do not have close shared ancestry.
Other Romance languages
Italian
In Italian language, negro was the archaic form of the adjective nero; as such, the previous form can still be found in literary texts or in surnames (cfr. the English-language surname Black), while the latter form is the only one currently used today. However, the word could also be used as a noun and at a certain point it was commonly used as term equivalent to English negro, but without its offensive connotation. However, under influence from English-speaking cultures, by the 1970s it had been replaced with nero and di colore. Nero was considered a better translation of the English word black, while di colore is a loan translation of the English word colored.[ Accademia della Crusca, Nero, negro e di colore, 12 ottobre 2012 [IT]]
The noun is considered offensive today,[ "'Negro'? Per noi è dispregiativo" ("'Negro'? For us it is a derogatory term") by Beppe Severgnini, Corriere Della Sera, 13 May 2013 (in Italian)]["...the most banned word in the politically correct dictionary..." : From "La Kyenge sdogana la parola tabù - Da oggi si può dire 'negro'" ("Kyenge clears the taboo word - From today we can say 'negro'") by Franco Bechis, Libero Quotidiano, 28 May 2014 (in Italian)][See also Racism in Italy] but some attestations of the previous use can still be found.[For example, famed 1960s pop music singer Fausto Leali was il negro bianco ("the white negro") in Italian media on account of his naturally hoarse voice style of singing. Compare: " Fausto Leali, il 'negro-bianco' compie 70 anni" ("Fausto Leali, the 'white negro', is 70 years old"), Corriere Brescia, 25 October 2014; " Auguri a Fausto Leali, il 'Negro Bianco' compie 70 anni" ("Felicitations to Fausto Leali, the 'White Negro' is 70 years old"), ANSA, 25 October 2014"; Fausto Leali, i 70 anni del Negro Bianco " ("Fausto Leali, the 70 years of the White Negro"), Brescia Oggi, 25 October 2014.]
In Italian law, Act No. 654 of 13 October 1975 (known as the "Oronzo Reale Act"), as amended by Act No. 205 of 25 June 1993 (known as the "Nicola Mancino Act") and Act No. 85 of 24 February 2006, criminalizes incitement to and racial discrimination itself, incitement to and racial violence itself, the promotion of ideas based on racial superiority or ethnic or racist hatred and the setting up or running of, participation in or support to any organisation, association, movement or group whose purpose is the instigation of racial discrimination or violence.[ Criminal Code of Italy (excerpts), Legislation online][ As the Council of Europe noted in its 2016 report, "the wording of the Reale Act does not include language as ground of discrimination, nor is skin color included as a ground of discrimination."][" ECRI Rerport on Italy" by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, Council of Europe, 7 June 2016] However, the Supreme Court, in affirming a lower-court decision, declared that the use of the term negro by itself, if it has a clearly offensive intention, may be punishable by law,[ "Dare del 'negro' è reato : lo dice la Cassazione" ("Calling out 'negro' is a crime : so says the Supreme Court") by Ivan Francese, Il Giornale, 7 October 2014 (in Italian)] and is considered an aggravating factor in a criminal prosecution.[ "Razzismo, la Cassazione: 'Insulti, sempre aggravante di discriminazione'" ("Racism, the Supreme Court: 'Insults are always an aggravating factor'"), Quotidiano.net, 15 July 2013]
French
In the French language, the existential concept of negritude ('blackness') was developed by the Senegalese politician Léopold Sédar Senghor. The word can still be used as a synonym of sweetheart in some traditional Louisiana French creole songs.[ Radio Canada, 1971, "Le Son des Français d'Amérique #3 Les Créoles, interview with Revon Reed] The word nègre as a racial term fell out of favor around the same time as its English equivalent negro. Its usage in French today (nègre littéraire) has shifted completely, to refer to a ghostwriter (écrivain fantôme), i.e. one who writes a book on behalf of its nominal author, usually a non-literary celebrity. However, French Ministry of Culture guidelines (as well as other official entities of Francophone regions[E.g. " prête-plume", Office Québécois de la Langue Française (Quebec Office for the French Language), 2012 (in French language)]) recommend the usage of alternative terms.
Haitian Creole
In Haitian Creole, the word nèg (derived from the French nègre referring to a dark-skinned man), can also be used for any man, regardless of skin color, roughly like the terms guy or dude in American English.
Romanian
In the Romanian language, negru can refer to either the color or a black person (as a neutral term).
Germanic languages
The Dutch language word neger was considered to be a neutral term, but since the start of the 21st century it is increasingly considered to be hurtful, condescending and/or discriminatory. The consensus among language advice services of the Flemish Government and Dutch Language Union is to use zwarte persoon/man/vrouw ('black person/man/woman') to denote race instead.[ "Het n-woord". Ninsee]
In German language, Neger was considered to be a neutral term for black people, but gradually fell out of fashion in the 1970s. Neger is now mostly thought to be derogatory or racist. In 2014, the (Austrian Press Council) claimed that the use of "Negerkinder" (negro children) in a magazine was discriminatory and offensive.
In Denmark, usage of neger is up for debate. Linguists and others argue that the word has a historical racist legacy that makes it unsuitable for use today. Mainly older people use the word neger with the notion that it is a neutral word paralleling negro. Relatively few young people use it, other than for provocative purposes in recognition that the word's acceptability has declined.[Anne Ringgaard, Journalist. "Hvorfor må man ikke sige neger?". videnskab.dk. Retrieved on 2 January 2016.]
In Swedish language and Norwegian, neger used to be considered a neutral equivalent to negro. However, the term gradually fell out of favor between the late 1960s and 1990s.
In West Frisian, the word neger is largely considered to be a neutral term for black people with African roots.
Elsewhere
In the Finnish language the word neekeri (cognate with negro) was long considered a neutral equivalent for negro.
In Turkish language, zenci is the closest equivalent to negro. The appellation was derived from the Arabic zanj for Bantu peoples. It is usually used without any negative connotation.
In Russia, the term негр () was commonly used in the USSR period without any negative connotation, and its use continues in this neutral sense. In modern Russian media, is used somewhat less frequently. Чёрный (, 'black') as an adjective is also used in a neutral sense, and conveys the same meaning as , as in чёрные американцы (, 'black Americans'). Other alternatives to are темнокожий (, 'dark-skinned'), чернокожий (, 'black-skinned'). The latter two words are used as both nouns and adjectives. See also Afro-Russian.
See also
External links
