EXPO-“Blacks”: The Disrespect and Gaslighting of The Black Community Through Semantics

For the last 401 years black people in America have come to take on multiple identities; all while acquiring new names and status in the socioeconomic stratification of good 'ol US of A. We have evolved from the outright plant racist labels to the more sophisticated names that we take pride in. However there are still people, white and of color alike, who come to still use these words as a means of oppressing and disrespecting our people. However in order to take a full in depth analysis of this evolution; we must understand the ways in how they happen through a more Anthropological approach. The first identification of said manipulation would be micro aggressions.

Micro aggressions according to the dictionary are defined as "a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority." Have you ever been at your job, in class, or even with your own friends of different ethnicities and you made some announcement of good news? Everyone is praising; giving good news and that one person with the patronizing tone of "oh wow! thats great I know that must have been REALLY heard for you." The phrase mixed with the tone all tied up with placement in the context of the conversation is a micro aggression. This is one of the main ways of disrespecting black people. Right next to gaslighting a person into having others dismiss their problem as minuscule or irrationally unimportant through non inclusion of other races.

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Negro:

From almost the beginning of modernized civilization ; when culture was finally old enough to be recorded and studied the word negro descended in the late 1400s defining Spanish word for black to describe the physical characteristics of black people in the world. Spanish getting its wording form classical rooting of Greek culture gives a more in depth complex of how the conception of this word came to label people of African descent. Once the late 1500s have come by then the start of America in 1619 and its slavery phenomena came to bring on a new meaning of Negro.

Negro was not just a way of describing men and women of African descent in the Americas; during that time the word became a disputable reference of ill intent from Nergo in to a Latin word that was first recorded from a Tobacco Englishman in Vriginia, John Rolfe who spoke of black people in his journal as "Negars". This took off as what we know as Nigger today, but later reverted back to Negro in a more sarcastic term from the the non black people in America as an insult. But this led us to our next label in the late 60s as "Black" people.

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Black:

In the time of ethnic identity and awakening; people of african descent just were coming out of the new age of industrialization and reconstruction after the civil war. Black people were looking for a new way of life with all the odds against them in the early 1900s. Not many could read, make good money, or live life on their own and did with what they had as farmers or other trades they received while enslaved. The word Negro was still ample and predominant as a source of identity. However as stated previously before, non black people came to use Negro as a condescending term for their low stature compared to themselves who have transcended the socioeconomic ladder in America.

Black people after being treaded on and abused over the last 300 years have had enough and built for themselves with a new awareness of who they are as people. This is what started the Afro Centralist movements like the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, SNCC, etc. This awakening was national and later led to global influence. Black Power is what it came to be known as and was widely accepted by 1976. However as people used negro and future terms; they used blacks as bad as well. Black power brought a new wave of socially distinguished black men and women that would raise the children of the late 80s and 90s which people in this movement like Jesse Jackson coined a new term; African American.

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African-American:

1988, Jesse Jackson running to be the first Black president coins a term in the need for more black sophistication and respect for the other racial backgrounds in America. African Americans come from a realization that after being here as recognized citizens, not fragmented by Slavery or Immigration, they are people who have fully recognized and experienced what is considered as close as possible to the American Dream for Black people. Jackson advocated for the recognition of African American to be on surveys, the census, and as a official race here in America.

Black people by this time have been here for almost 400 years and have come to adjust and take on the American mantle as one of their own. There is a culture in every state of the country and differences all throughout; especially with the new black melting pot from the great migration of the 1950s after World War 2 and Jim Crow Era. They viewed themselves as Americans wanted the same equality every other race received this whole time while they did not. This is what has come to be the most "progressive" label for the black community in our journey to social citizenship. But in recent years in the 2010s, we're going right back to being Black and wanting Black Power in the wake of Police Brutality and Representation.

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Conclusion:

It's 2020 and the world is coming to wake up and visually smell the social coprolite that our country has attributed to our struggle to equity and social justice. Black people overall have come to see themselves in a fragmented mirror of all of these things. W.E.B. DuBois wrote about dual citizenships and code switching to survive and thrive in America; 100 years later we have made no progress in walking on eggshells and playing catch up to other racial demographics in America today. Although Hip Hop is the most popular genre, Black people get high fashion deals to represent the company, even people in the streets marching for the simple fact of wanting our people to stay alive and for the police to change. We have empty victories because the people might like what we do, how we act. even become us but they still hate us. This is all out of fear of what we can do as a people. Keep fighting black people; don't settle for people wanting to be us as a display of allies but have them show us support and advocation for the progress of our people!

-Q

Sources:

-Martin, B. (1991). From Negro to Black to African American: The Power of Names and Naming.Political Science Quarterly,106(1), 83-107. doi:10.2307/2152175

-Ayinde (1999). Creation of the Negro. http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/negro.htm

-Kennedy, Randall (2002). Nigger: The Strange Career of A Troublesome Word. Washington Post.