Yesterday afternoon on NPR's "All Things Considered", there was a commentary piece by a black woman from Cincinnati. I didn't catch her name. I was listening with only one ear because her rant struck me as bogus. It was something about all the flag-wavers these days and how inappropriate that was for a nation of unequals. I may misrepresent her; as I say I wasn't listening close.

What caused me to perk up my ears was that she identified herself as "Negro". She continued to use "negro" several times. Dang, this was a PC person---is "negro" coming back IN? Is "African-American" going OUT? Maybe she was just so pissed at the flag syndrome that she didn't want to use the word "american". Or maybe another seismic shift in PC tectonics is occurring.

It is important for me to know because I strive to be a happening-dude.

-- (lars@indy.net), December 18, 2001

Answers

Then there is "colored people" (a real no-no except to the NAACP) vs "people of color". "People of color" is PC but does not refer exclusively to people of black-African heritage. Everyone except those of European descent is a "person of color". So I guess we're back to saying either "negro" or "African-American" (or African-French, etc) or "black Africans" (to differentiate negro Africans from European Africans from Asian Africans).

I've got a headache.

-- (lars@indy.net), December 18, 2001.

Then there are the people from Indiana. When I was in college, we called them conservative republicans. Then Time published a story calling Indiana the most politically corrupt state in the country [would be the 60's]. We couldn't call them that anymore. We had to start calling them hoosiers. Of course you know what that means. ;o)))

Best Wishes,,,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), December 18, 2001.

Z, as you are aware, the etymology of "hoosier" is not known. Seriously, do you ever use the word "negro"? In what context? I was quite surprised to hear the black NPR woman use it.

Maybe there is a retro language vogue that has not yet reached Indiana from Missouri and Cincinnati.

OT a little---I was at the dentist today. I was kidding around with the 30-something receptionist when she said "groovy". I haven't heard that word since the 60s or 70s.

-- (lars@indy.net), December 19, 2001.

Lars,

A "Hoosier" is a group of people in shorts and tank-tops in Bloomington that think they can play basketball ; )

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), December 19, 2001.