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the lincoln will answer it that way steph wants to know lewis
hey guys love the show kind of random but i was wondering what your thoughts
are on calling people black as opposed to african-american is it
offensive less offensive more offensive what's your thought on that this is an
interesting question now
often use the term when talking about african-americans
i'd often use the term
african-american or black basically interchangeably
i don't really believe that it's of more less offensive court i'm not black so
they're per probably a range of opinions on that
and i think said
i think that in some
circumstances
the term african-american
when you thought we'd to avoid using that term black
sometimes is a disservice and that it may not even be accurate in other words
sometimes when we're talking about for example
uh... if that many times there will be there might be a new story about someone
who is
black and european
and determine african-american is used
to avoid using the term black
now that person may have roots in africa but they're certainly not american their
family went from africa to europe for example so i think sometimes in the
interest of political correctness were using terms it just an actor
uh... aunty i've pretty much stopped using african-american
completely healthy ahead of him
uh... on white
colin powell's black
it's it's black and white me aids is a little black-and-white issue line
waiting to hear the things some people would say
supple case of one counterargument would be will hold on a second
just because you're white and you don't find white offensive as opposed to
caucasian is not a good reason to say
that black it may not be offensive infant instead of another term like
african-american because white in caucasian were never really terms that
were broadly associated with racism
and negative connotations writen in times of somebody could argue that it's
not really good comparison to say well
i don't think black verses african-american makes sense because in
my case i don't mind
one or the other
uh... account argument could be that
uh... if you talk about white people and and and then you're talking about
african-americans instead of saying black people
white people have many different ethnic groups among them of certainly all-white
person like bus
like mean dave say as jewish o immigrants from argentina certainly
isn't the same as all white person the whose irish for a white person who's
northern italian
that i would say on just on that front maybe white is to general on the other
hand
i think that the idea that week we can say black anymore we have to say
african-american kisses
we can see me grow anymore which was the standard and not offensive term forty
years ago
is totally arbitrary there's that it is just a question of use people the way
people use that becomes offensive but the reality is the word isn't really
offensive in itself a let's go to that louis right at there's this other idea
that
sometimes about groups who are or oppressed or insulted with a word
will try to take that word back essentially and use it to their
advantage in in other words another advantage but in order to remove the
power that it has by those who use it as a negative terms of the n_ word as an
example of this
or uh... you know that we can think of a number of different turns right
uh... what what's your reaction to that is that a valid thing to do i don't know
that it always works
yeah i definitely doesn't always work
i mean there there are plenty of words where
only the groups that uh... it's associated with use it
and
wits okay for them to use it but even they get outraged and
others who were unaffiliated reached winner
when i might try to use it sir
uh...
i mean is black one of those words no uh... we've had we've talked with people
who said
black people or african-american you were saying
uni-y your wire you call in the african-american on on on african i mean
while let me know depending on how far back your real african
uh... and then many people just saying well whatever the term uh... on a black
american are on the white american or maybe everything i'm a white south
american kind of even though on the census understanding look if you want to
analyze their career born in america
well that's what you are right
white american once you really start analyzing these things in detail and
drying out comparisons what you really get to is race is a cultural
construction is it
that in the time is at the bottom line on this
yeah and i think it even
broader point is that the language we use the words we use
is really not based on some fundamental uh... meaning of the war it's just based
on how other people view it so it's it's not acceptable nowadays to say um... you
know i have a negro friend even though the fifty years ago that was a totally
not offensive way of describing sell your friend
is so this is just based on what other people
how other people will react to be used the yuri giving and where was is it more
informed by how other people will react or by the people about
whom the words are
let's get into that a little bit i mean people are do you have their
preconceived notions about what someone is actually saying when they use
a term like black or white like if someone as listening to rush limbaugh
and he uses the term black
uh... throws her out a few times in one of his uh... soliloquy xs
uh...
you know they might get hurt by that
whereas if someone who they know a purple beef to be not racist or uh... i
have no
bill will towards black people as using the term black to describe someone fair
they might have a completely different interpretation of that this and we had a
great example of this with the scott brown elizabeth warned thing not a
racial terms of the eighty eight scott brown in debate started referring to her
as professor warren
yeah and you would say well listen on the one hand objectively she is a
professor
on the other hand
there's this whole context of right wingers believing that people who are
professors are these elites liberal elites were biased and disconnected from
reality and so so you have to also i think it's a good point you're making
which is you have to look at the context of who's saying it right
and i mean the person saying it has there
intentions of course in
there is a year and they also have their own agenda right
alright excellent question keep the questions coming did it happen dot com
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