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Am I wrong for preferring the terms “negro” & “colored” over “black”?
The words “negro” and “colored” were the proper and formal terms for people of African, and possibly Melanesian, background during the time of the words’ usage, for “negro” that would have been from around the mid-16th century right up to the 1980’s, and the word “colored” seems to have been in formal use from the mid to late 18th century right up to the 1980’s. By the 1980’s those words had become uncouth.
The word “Negro” has equivalents in other European languages, Italian also used “negro” (the Italian word for black is “nero” (masculine) or “nera” (feminine)) French used “nčgre” & Germanic languages used “neger”, & it probably became uncouth in those languages around the same time as in English.
Like many words, their origins are probably unclear, but the term “negro” certainly has its origins in the Spanish and Portuguese word for the color black, the Iberians being the first Europeans to have extensive contact with Africans, and the term “colored” probably has its origins in how people of non-European descent can have various shades of skin tones.
I’ve always felt that the term “negro” & “colored” were more accurate to describe people of African descent, & possibly Melanesian & South Asian descent as well. First of all, there are other dark skinned peoples in the world who are not of African descent, most notably Melanesians & South Asians like Indians and Sri-Lankans, and they can be very dark-skinned indeed, but they, or at least not South Asians, are not called “black”. Second of all, those people usually aren’t literally black, they’re usually shades of brown. Similarly, I’d personally prefer the term “Caucasian” over “white” because people people of European descent aren’t literally white, but are shades of khaki, and most people of East Asian and European descent share the same skin tones. I like the term “coloured” because its an umbrella term for all non-white people generally, particularly those of darker skin. Why have the terms “negro” and “colored” become uncouth and even offensive?
A quick google search for “why while people are called Caucasian” & the Wikipedia article on Caucasian race should reveal why, basically “The term “Caucasian” originated from a growing 18th-century European science of racial classification. German anatomist Johann Blumenbach visited the Caucasus Mountains, located between the Caspian and Black seas, and he must have been enchanted because he labeled the people there “Caucasians” and proposed that they were created in God’s image as an ideal form of humanity. And the label has stuck to this day.”
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