Barrel Strength

Today’s Dear Abby column features a letter from a Reverend Alton Paris, “American” (sic) who  explains the evolution of the terms used to designate American black people. The letter is instructive because it sets out what an American black man thinks of the various labels applied over time to American blacks/Negroes/African Americans/whatever they are called this decade.

“We were called by many names – most of them negative, such as “Negro”, “Coloured”, “African,” the infamous “N-word,” “Afro-American” and finally, “black.” All of these at one time we considered negative because they didn’t represent self-identification.

“The black power movement occurred when Black Americans changed the negative term “black” to the positive term “Black.”

Eh? How does Black with a capital B constitute positivity and black  with a small b negativity?

The argument comes down to: it is because we say it is.

I am reminded of one of the weirdest things I ever witnessed. About a decade ago, a leftist Canadian woman heard her American leftist friend use the word “Eskimo”, as nearly everyone does in the United States. The Canadian gently pointed out that the correct term for Eskimo was Inuit. What was surprising was the immense gratitude with which the American received this knowledge. It was if the faithful had taken Communion at the hands of the Pope. Her face lit up with pleasure. Now she had the politically correct term, with which she could  correct the speech of other Americans, and another code word to distinguish the politically Saved from the politically Damned. Like Black (enlightened) and black (benighted).