In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from.
[ The term can be construed as ]offensive
Offensive may refer to:
* Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative
* Offensive (military), an attack
* Offensive language
** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...
, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region or country where it is used, as well as the context in which it is applied. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Rom ...
.
In English
Around 1442, the Portuguese first arrived in Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
while trying to find a sea route to India. The term ', literally meaning "black", was used by the Spanish and Portuguese as a simple description to refer to the Bantu peoples
The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Southern A ...
that they encountered. ''Negro'' denotes "black" in Spanish and Portuguese, derived from the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word ''niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Proto-Indo-European root
The root (linguistics), roots of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) are basic parts of words that carry a lexical (semiotics), lexical meaning, so-called morphemes. PIE roots usually have verbal meaning like "to eat" or "to run ...](_blank)
''*nekw-'', "to be dark", akin to ''*nokw-'', "night". ''Negro'' was also used of the peoples of West Africa in old maps labelled Negroland
Negroland, or Nigritia, is an archaic term in European mapping, referring to Europeans’ descriptions of West Africa as an area populated with negroes.
This area comprised at least the western part of the region called Sudan (not to be c ...
, an area stretching along the Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
.
From the 18th century to the late 1960s, ''negro'' (later capitalized) was considered to be the proper English-language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
term for people of black African origin. According to Oxford Dictionaries, use of the word "now seems out of date or even offensive in both British and US English".
A specifically female form of the word, ''negress'' (sometimes capitalized), was occasionally used. However, like ''Jewess'', it has all but completely fallen out of use.
''Negroid
Negroid (less commonly called Congoid) is an obsolete racial grouping of various people indigenous to Africa south of the area which stretched from the southern Sahara desert in the west to the African Great Lakes in the southeast, but also to i ...
'' was used within physical anthropology
Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct Hominini, hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly ...
to denote one of the three purported races of humankind, alongside ''Caucasoid'' and ''Mongoloid
Mongoloid () is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race. In the past, other terms ...
''. The suffix "-oid
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
" means "similar to". ''Negroid'' as a noun was used to designate a wider or more generalized category than ''Negro''; as an adjective, it qualified a noun as in, for example, "negroid features".
United States
''Negro'' superseded ''colored
''Colored'' (or ''coloured'') is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow, Jim Crow Era to refer to an African Americans, African American. In many places, it may be considered a Pejorative, slur, though it ...
'' as the most polite word for African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
at a time when ''black'' was considered more offensive. In 17th-century colonial America, the term ''Negro'' had been also, according to one historian, used to describe Native Americans. John Belton O'Neall
John Belton O'Neall (1793–1863) was an American judge who served on the precursor to the South Carolina Supreme Court. He is remembered for writing the digest ''The Negro Law of South Carolina''.
Biography and legal career
O'Neall graduated ...
's The Negro Law of South Carolina
The ''Negro Law of South Carolina'' (1848) was one of John Belton O'Neall's longer works.
Summary and immediate reception
In 1848, the author read the ''Negro Law of South Carolina'' to the State Agricultural Society of South Carolina, at thei ...
(1848) stipulated that "the term negro is confined to slave Africans, (the ancient Berbers) and their descendants. It does not embrace the free inhabitants of Africa, such as the Egyptians, Moors, or the negro Asiatics, such as the Lascars."[ ] The American Negro Academy The American Negro Academy (ANA), founded in Washington, DC in 1897, was the first organization in the United States to support African-American academic scholarship. It operated until 1928,Smith and encouraged African Americans to undertake classic ...
was founded in 1897, to support liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
education. Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...
used the word in the names of black nationalist
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race (human categorization), race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black natio ...
and pan-Africanist
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...
organizations such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association
The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States, and Amy Ashwood Garvey. The Pan-African o ...
(founded 1914), the ''Negro World
''Negro World'' was the newspaper of the Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA). Founded by Garvey and Amy Ashwood Garvey, the newspaper was published weekly in Harlem, New York, and distr ...
'' (1918), the Negro Factories Corporation Negro Factories Corporation was one of the business ventures of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League recognized by 125 countries worldwide with its own Constitution and flag. The UNIA-ACL is a black nationalist ...
(1919), and the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World
The Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World was drafted and adopted at the Convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association held in New York City's Madison Square Garden on August 13, 1920. Marcus Garvey presided over th ...
(1920). W. E. B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...
and Dr. Carter G. Woodson
Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was one of the first scholars to study the h ...
used it in the titles of their non-fiction books, ''The Negro
''The Negro'' is a book by W. E. B. Du Bois published in 1915 and released in electronic form by Project Gutenberg in 2011. It is an overview of African-American history, tracing it as far back as the sub-Saharan cultures, including Great Zim ...
'' (1915) and ''The Mis-Education of the Negro
''The Mis-Education of the Negro'' is a book originally published in 1933 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
Content
The thesis of Woodson's book is that Black people of his day were being culturally indoctrinated, rather than taught, in American schools ...
'' (1933) respectively. Du Bois also used in the titles of his books The Study of the Negro Problems
The Study of the Negro Problems, from ''The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science'' (January 1898), is an essay written by professor, sociologist, historian and activist W. E. B. Du Bois. It both challenges the questi ...
(1898)
The Philadelphia Negro
''The Philadelphia Negro'' is a sociological study of African Americans in Philadelphia written by W. E. B. Du Bois, commissioned by the University of Pennsylvania and published in 1899 with the intent of identifying social problems present in ...
(1899). ''Negro'' was accepted as normal, both as exonym and endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
, until the late 1960s, after the later Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. One example is Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
self-identification as ''Negro'' in his famous "I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...
" speech of 1963.
However, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the word ''Negro'' began to be criticized as having been imposed by white people, and having connotations of racial subservience and Uncle Tomism
Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. The character was seen by many readers as a ground-breaking Humanism, humanistic portrayal of a slave, one who uses nonresistance and gives his life t ...
. The term ''Black'', in contrast, denoted pride, power, and a rejection of the past. It took root first in more militant groups such as the Black Muslims and Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...
, and by 1967, SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...
leader Stokeley Carmichael
Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...
pushed for the abandonment of ''Negro''. After the Newark riots
The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey, United States. Taking place over a four-day period (between July 12 and July 17, 1967), the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and ...
in the summer of 1967, one third to one half of young Black males polled in Newark self-identified as ''Black''. The term coexisted for a while with ''Negro'', with the newer term initially referring only to progressive or radical Blacks, while ''Negro'' was used more for the Black establishment. Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
preferred ''Black'' to ''Negro'', but also started using the term ''Afro-American'' after leaving the Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930.
A black nationalist organization, the NOI focuses its attention on the African diaspora, especially on African ...
.
Since the late 1960s, various other terms have been more widespread in popular usage. These include ''Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
'', ''Black African
Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...
'', ''Afro-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...
'' (in use from the late 1960s to 1990) and ''African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
''. The word ''Negro'' fell out of favor by the early 1970s. However, many older African Americans initially found the term ''black'' more offensive than ''Negro.''
The term ''Negro'' is still used in some historical contexts, such as the songs known as Negro spirituals
Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with Black Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the e ...
, the Negro leagues
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...
of baseball in the early and mid-20th century, and organizations such as the United Negro College Fund
UNCF, the United Negro College Fund, also known as the United Fund, is an American philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for black students and general scholarship funds for 37 private historically black colleges and universities. ...
. The academic journal
An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...
published by Howard University
Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...
since 1932 still bears the title ''Journal of Negro Education
''The Journal of Negro Education'' was a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Howard University, established in 1932 by Charles Henry Thompson, who was its editor-in-chief for more than 30 years.[Association for the Study of African American Life and History
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is an organization dedicated to the study and appreciation of African-American History. It is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, 1915 ...]
; its publication ''The Journal of Negro History'' became ''The Journal of African American History
''The Journal of African American History'', formerly ''The Journal of Negro History'' (1916–2001), is a quarterly academic journal covering African-American life and history. It was founded in 1916 by Carter G. Woodson. The journal is owned and ...
'' in 2001. Margo Jefferson
Margo Lillian Jefferson (born October 17, 1947) is an American writer and academic.
Biography
Jefferson received her B.A. from Brandeis University, where she graduated ''cum laude'', and her M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of J ...
titled her 2015 book '' Negroland: A Memoir'' to evoke growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in the African-American upper class
The African-American upper class is a social class that consists of African-American individuals who have high disposable incomes and high net worth. The group may include highly paid white-collar professionals such as academics, engineers, law ...
.
African American linguist John McWhorter
John Hamilton McWhorter V (; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist with a specialty in creole languages, sociolects, and Black English. He is currently associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches Amer ...
has bemoaned attacks on the use of ''Negro'' in "utterances or written reproductions of the word when referring to older texts and titles". He cites reports that performances or publishing of certain works ( William L. Dawson’s “Negro Folk Symphony
The ''Negro Folk Symphony'' is a symphony composed by William L. Dawson and completed in 1934.
The work consists of three movements:
Its world premiere on November 20, 1934, at Carnegie Hall in New York City was conducted by Leopold Stokowski a ...
”, and an anthology of Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
's works) have been avoided, "out of wariness of the word 'Negro'” used in titles; and of "two cases" between 2020-2021 "of white college professors having complaints filed against them by students for using the word 'Negro' in class when quoting older texts."
The United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
included ''Negro'' on the 2010 Census, alongside ''Black'' and ''African-American'', because some older black Americans still self-identify with the term. The U.S. Census used the grouping "Black, African-American, or Negro". ''Negro'' was used in an effort to include older African Americans who more closely associate with the term. In 2013, the census removed the term from its forms and questionnaires. The term has also been censored by some newspaper archives.
Liberia
The constitution of Liberia
The Constitution of Liberia is the supreme law of the Republic of Liberia. The current constitution, which came into force on 6 January 1986, replaced the Liberian Constitution of 1847, which had been in force since the independence of Liberia ...
limits Liberian nationality to ''Negro'' people (see also Liberian nationality law
Liberian nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Liberia, as amended; the Aliens and Nationality Law, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is el ...
). People of other racial origins, even if they have lived for many years in Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
, are thus precluded from becoming citizens of the Republic.
In other languages
Spanish language
In Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, ' (feminine ') is most commonly used for the color black, but it can also be used to describe people with dark-colored skin. In Spain, Mexico, and almost all of Latin America, ''negro'' (lower-cased, as ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
s are generally not capitalized in Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
) means just 'black colour' and it doesn't refer by itself to any ethnic or race unless further context is provided. As in English, this Spanish word is often used figuratively and negatively, to mean 'irregular' or 'undesirable', as in ' ('black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
'). However, in most Spanish-speaking countries, ''negro'' and ''negra'' are commonly used to refer to partners or close friends.[negro]
in the '' Diccionario de la Real Academia Española''
Spanish East Indies
In the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, which historically had almost no contact with the Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
, the Spanish-derived term ''negro'' (feminine ''negra'') is still commonly used to refer to black people, as well as to people with dark-colored skin (both native and foreign). Like in Spanish usage, it has no negative connotations when referring to black people. However, it can be mildly pejorative when referring to the skin color of other native Filipinos due to traditional beauty standards. The use of the term for the color black is restricted to Spanish phrases or nouns.
''Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, ...
'' (feminine ''negrita'') is also a term used in the Philippines to refer to the various darker-skinned native ethnic groups that partially descended from early Australo-Melanesian
Australo-Melanesians (also known as Australasians or the Australomelanesoid, Australoid or Australioid race) is an outdated historical grouping of various people indigenous to Melanesia and Australia. Controversially, groups from Southeast Asia an ...
migrations. These groups include the Aeta
The Aeta (Ayta ), Agta, or Dumagat, are collective terms for several Filipino indigenous peoples who live in various parts of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. They are considered to be part of the Negrito ethnic groups and share common ...
, Ati
Ati or ATI may refer to:
* Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines
**Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group
** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines
*Ati language (China), a ...
, Mamanwa
The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous people in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially adopte ...
, and the Batak
Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...
, among others. Despite physical appearances, they all speak Austronesian languages and are genetically related to other Austronesian Filipinos. The island of Negros
Negros is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of . Negros is one of the many islands of the Visayas, in the central part of the country. The predominant inhabitants of the island region a ...
is named after them. The term Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, ...
has entered scientific usage in the English language based on the original Spanish/Filipino usage to refer to similar populations in South and Southeast Asia. However, the appropriateness of using the word to bundle people of similar physical appearances has been questioned as genetic evidence show they do not have close shared ancestry.
Other Romance languages
Italian
In Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, was the archaic form of the adjective ; as such, the previous form can still be found in literary texts or in surnames (cfr. the English-language surname ''Black''), while the latter form is the only one currently used today. However, the word could also be used as a noun and at a certain point it was commonly used as term equivalent to English ''negro'', but without its offensive connotation. However, under influence from English-speaking cultures, by the 1970s it had been replaced with ''nero'' and ''di colore''. ''Nero'' was considered a better translation of the English word ''black'', while ''di colore'' is a loan translation of the English word ''colored''.
The noun is considered offensive today, but some attestations of the previous use can still be found.
In Italian law
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, Act No. 654 of 13 October 1975 (known as the “Reale Reale is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Damien Reale (born 1981), Irish hurler
*David Reale (born 1984), Canadian actor
*Enzo Reale (born 1991), French footballer
*Federigo Reale, 19th-century Italian painter
*Giovanni Reale ( ...
Act"), as amended by Act No. 205 of 25 June 1993 (known as the “ Mancino Act") and Act No. 85 of 24 February 2006, criminalizes incitement to and racial discrimination itself, incitement to and racial violence itself, the promotion of ideas based on racial superiority or ethnic or racist hatred and the setting up or running of, participation in or support to any organisation, association, movement or group whose purpose is the instigation of racial discrimination or violence.[ As the ]Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
noted in its 2016 report, "the wording of the Reale Act does not include language as ground of discrimination, nor is kin __NOTOC__
Kin usually refers to kinship and family.
Kin or KIN may also refer to:
Culture and religion
*Otherkin, people who identify as not entirely human
*Kinism, a white supremacist religious movement
* Kinh, the majority ethnic group of V ...
color included as a ground of discrimination."[ECRI Rerport on Italy]
by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
, 7 June 2016 However, the Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, in affirming a lower-court decision, declared that the use of the term ''negro'' by itself, if it has a clearly offensive intention, may be punishable by law, and is considered an aggravating factor
Aggravation, in law, is "any circumstance attending the commission of a crime or tort which increases its guilt or enormity or adds to its injurious consequences, but which is above and beyond the essential constituents of the crime or tort itself. ...
in a criminal prosecution
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
.
French
In the French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
, the existential concept of ' ('blackness') was developed by the Senegalese politician Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor (; ; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist who was the first president of Senegal (1960–80).
Ideologically an African socialist, he was the major theoretician o ...
. The word can still be used as a synonym of "sweetheart" in some traditional Louisiana French creole songs. The word ' as a racial term fell out of favor around the same time as its English equivalent ''negro''. Its usage in French today (''nègre littéraire'') has shifted completely, to refer to a ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...
(''écrivain fantôme''), i.e. one who writes a book on behalf of its nominal author, usually a non-literary celebrity. However, French Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, ...
guidelines (as well as other official entities of Francophone
French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...
regions) recommend the usage of alternative terms.
Haitian Creole
In Haitian Creole
Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a French-based creole language spoken by 10–12million people wor ...
, the word ' (derived from the French ' referring to a dark-skinned man), can also be used for any man, regardless of skin color, roughly like the terms "guy" or "dude
''Dude'' is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural lo ...
" in American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
.
Germanic languages
The Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
word ' was considered to be a neutral term, but since the start of the 21st century it is increasingly considered to be hurtful, condescending and/or discriminatory. The consensus among language advice services of the Flemish Government and Dutch Language Union is to use ''zwarte persoon/man/vrouw'' (black person/man/woman) to denote race instead.
In German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, ' was considered to be a neutral term for black people, but gradually fell out of fashion since the 1970s. ' is now mostly thought to be derogatory or racist.
In Denmark, usage of ' is up for debate. Linguists and others argue that the word has a historical racist legacy that makes it unsuitable for use today. Mainly older people use the word ' with the notion that it is a neutral word paralleling ''negro''. Relatively few young people use it, other than for provocative purposes in recognition that the word's acceptability has declined.
In Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
and Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
, ' used to be considered a neutral equivalent to ''negro''. However, the term gradually fell out of favor between the late 1960s and 1990s.
In West Frisian, the word ''neger'' is largely considered to be a neutral term for black people with African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
roots. The word ''nikker'' (evil water spirit) is considered to be offensive and derogatory, but not necessarily racist due to the term's historic definition.
Elsewhere
In the Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...
the word ' (cognate with ''negro'') was long considered a neutral equivalent for "negro". In 2002, ''neekeri'''s usage notes in the ''Kielitoimiston sanakirja
''Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish'' ( fi, Kielitoimiston sanakirja, previously known as the ''New Dictionary of Modern Finnish'') is the most recent dictionary of the modern Finnish language. It is edited by the Institute for the Languages o ...
'' shifted from "perceived as derogatory by some" to "generally derogatory". The name of a popular Finnish brand of chocolate-coated marshmallow treats
Chocolate-coated marshmallow treats also known as Chocolate teacakes are confections consisting of a biscuit base topped with marshmallow-like filling and then coated in a hard shell of chocolate. They were invented in Denmark in the 19th centu ...
was changed by the manufacturers from ' (lit. 'negro's kiss', like the German version) to ' ('Brunberg's kiss') in 2001. A study conducted among native Finns found that 90% of research subjects considered the terms ' and ' among the most derogatory epithets for ethnic minorities.
In Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
, ' is the closest equivalent to ''negro''. The appellation was derived from the Arabic ''zanj
Zanj ( ar, زَنْج, adj. , ''Zanjī''; fa, زنگی, Zangi) was a name used by medieval Muslim geographers to refer to both a certain portion of Southeast Africa (primarily the Swahili Coast) and to its Bantu inhabitants. This word is also ...
'' for Bantu peoples
The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Southern A ...
. It is usually used without any negative connotation.
In Hungarian, ' (possibly derived from its German equivalent) is still considered to be the most neutral equivalent of ''negro''.[See Hungarian sources at the related Hungarian Wikipedia article]
In Russia, the term (''negr'') was commonly used in the Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
period without any negative connotation, and its use continues in this neutral sense. In modern Russian media, ''negr'' is used somewhat less frequently. (''chyorny'', "black") as an adjective is also used in a neutral sense, and conveys the same meaning as ''negr'', as in (''chyornye amerikantsy'', "black Americans"). Other alternatives to ''negr'' are ''темнокожий'' (''temnokozhy'', "dark-skinned"), ''чернокожий'' (''chernokozhy'', "black-skinned"). These two are used as both nouns and adjectives. See also Afro-Russian
Afro-Russians (russian: Афророссияне, Afrorossiyane) are people of African descent that have migrated to and settled in Russia. The Metis Foundation estimates that there were about 30,000 Afro-Russians in 2013.
Terminology
Represen ...
.
See also
* Free Negro
*Kaffir (racial term)
Kaffir (, Afrikaans: "kaffer") is an ethnic slur which is used in reference to black Africans in South Africa. Derived from the Arabic word ''Kafir'' meaning "nonbeliever", particularly of Islam. In the form of ''cafri'', it evolved from its r ...
*Nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
*Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, ...
*Colored
''Colored'' (or ''coloured'') is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow, Jim Crow Era to refer to an African Americans, African American. In many places, it may be considered a Pejorative, slur, though it ...
*Blackfella
''Blackfella'' (also ''blackfellah'', ''blackfulla'', ''black fella'', or ''black fellah'') is an informal term in Australian English to refer to Indigenous Australians, in particular Aboriginal Australians, most commonly among themselves.
Simi ...
*Nigga
''Nigga'' () is a colloquial and vulgar term used in African-American Vernacular English that began as a dialect form of the word ''nigger'', an ethnic slur against black people. The word is commonly associated with hip hop music and Afric ...
*Magical Negro
The Magical Negro is a trope in American cinema, television, and literature. In the cinema of the United States, the Magical Negro is a supporting stock character who comes to the aid of white protagonists in a film. Magical Negro characters, w ...
, a trope in fiction
*The ''Book of Negroes
The ''Book of Negroes'' is a document created by Brigadier General Samuel Birch, under the direction of Sir Guy Carleton, that records names and descriptions of 3,000 Black Loyalists, enslaved Africans who escaped to the British lines during t ...
'', a historical document
References
External links
*
{{Ethnic slurs
Ethnonyms
Anti-African and anti-black slurs
English words
Portuguese words and phrases
Spanish words and phrases
African-American-related controversies
Spanish language in the United States