What does a name represent? In the late 1960’s, two teenage colored girls were babysitting two white children. As the teenagers sat watching television, they heard the little girl holler, ” Blackie, Blackie come here!” As the teenagers began to rush to the bedroom, they heard a painful sounding scream from the little girl. When they got to the bedroom door, sure enough the little girl had received a blow from her brother, seven years old. He explained, “She know we can’t use that word!” It is ironic that in today’s society “colored” is considered derogatory, and identification of Black acceptable. What does a name represent? At Christmas time in the 1950’s, a favorite nut was called a “nigger toe.” The colored folks enjoyed the delicacy of the nut. The shell of the nut was so hard that oftentimes a hammer was used to crack the shell. In a small country town in the south, the colored folks did not have any reservations about calling the nut a “nigger toe.” Supposedly, in the late 1890’s century, this slang term for Brazil nuts is offensive and viewed as degradation to African Americans.
What does a name represent? There is a long history of how Caucasians became known as whites and the darker skins became know as colored or blacks. According to Nancy Shoemaker through her various researches and writings, she provided the following insight about Native Americas being referred to as red: “Documents from the colonial period indicated the the use of “red” as an identifier by Native Americans for themselves emerged in the context of Indian European diplomacy in the southeastern region of North America becoming a generic label for all Native Americans.” Shoemaker portends that the choice of “red” chosen by the Indians may have been more of a cultural association than a skin color.
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