[Naj]

I’m going to use black for the purposes of this post but I don’t particularly like it. I think that colored is a much more appropriate term to describe African Americans than black. Yes there are people whose skin tone resembles the color black but that’s only one portion. I, myself, am a reddish brown, much lighter than black. My father is darker than I am but still not black. My mother is quite fair with straight hair often being mistaken for Cuban, Brazilian and when she doesn’t tan, white. I was at a Jack and Jill Conference a few weeks ago and I saw people of every color, from ‘Jet black’ to ‘snow white’ and each and every one was an African American(as Jack and Jill is exclusively black). My grandmother detests the term black and discourages me from using it. She only uses colored stating that negro is just Portugese and Spanish for black. She, a high yellow Southern belle, was raised in a time where this was the norm. In the ’60’s and ’70’s this became a real issue as it was the time of ‘black power’ and ‘black is beautiful’. Not to say that she hated her people but people of her social class and generally of her skin color did not wished to be grouped with the working class and militant blacks characterizing the era. She hated the sight of afros and nappy heads and the pimps and crack whores that she associated with ‘black’. I sort of got off topic but I wanted to know if anyone else feels the way I do or how my nonna does and how people feel about the terms ‘colored’, ‘black’ and ‘negro’. I think Africa American is all too PC and it’s too wordy for the common vernacular.

User Detail :  

Name : Naj, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/Italian/Native American (Ima Sambo), Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 16, City : Miami, State : FL, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Social class : Upper middle class, 

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