Why ‘Black’?

OF AMERICANS feel passe9 today (if not hors de combat) if they let the word Negro roll off their tongues: the word is black, baby; don’t you forget it! Over the centuries, Negroes and Caucasians have used no one single word but have preferred Negro and secondarily, colored, though before the Civil War, some frequently used black, often opprobriously.

In recent years, Americans have rarely employed any term but Negro. However, before his assassination (by Negroes) in 1964, Malcolm X denigrated the “so-called Negro” and usually spoke instead of Afro-Americans and of black men. Owing more to the radical W.E.B. Du Bois than to Du Bois’ conservative adversary Booker T. Washington, Malcolm’s brilliant autobiography depicts his self-image as a “slave” and then his emergence as a “free” black man.

DB

About the Author

David Brudnoy

Featured Tags

OF AMERICANS feel passe9 today (if not hors de combat) if they let the word Negro roll off their tongues: the word is black, baby; don’t you forget it! Over the centuries, Negroes and Caucasians have used no one single word but have preferred Negro and secondarily, colored, though before the Civil War, some frequently used black, often opprobriously.

In recent years, Americans have rarely employed any term but Negro. However, before his assassination (by Negroes) in 1964, Malcolm X denigrated the “so-called Negro” and usually spoke instead of Afro-Americans and of black men. Owing more to the radical W.E.B. Du Bois than to Du Bois’ conservative adversary Booker T. Washington, Malcolm’s brilliant autobiography depicts his self-image as a “slave” and then his emergence as a “free” black man.