What's In A Name

 I want to share a conversation I had with friends last night on our way to the local Tea Party semi-monthly meeting.

I brought up my post about how the term "Urban" now means (pick your preferred term):  colored, Negro, Afro-American, black, person-of-color, African-American.

And I noted that "African-American" means someone/anyone with black skin. It does NOT mean someone from Africa. Which is odd...isn't it, if you think about it?

Only black people, almost all of whom have never seen Africa, and whose ancestors back ten generations have never seen Africa are calling themselves African-Americans.

But an emigre right off the boat from Africa cannot call himself that...

...if his skin is white...though all his ancestors back ten generations have inhabited Africa.

What peculiar oddness is afoot?

That made us take a look at the weird changes in what blacks want to call themselves. And want US to call them.

And it reminded me very much about how Liberals constantly change descriptors for all sorts of things.

For example. In the old days, we used to use the expression "feeble-minded" to describe someone of very low cognitive ability. It wasn't meant as an insult, just as an accurate description of their condition. The word "idiot" was equally neutral.

Eventually, those words were seen as pejorative, and it was decided by the always feeble-minded Liberals that we would use a "nicer" word. And we began to call such people "retarded" or "slow".

See how much nicer those words are?

Oh, you don't?

Of course you don't. Because eventually they became labeled as pejorative by the same idiots that insisted we use them. So that now we use meaningless terms like "special".

Well, except it's NOT meaningless. It used to mean someone was, you know, special. Now it means he's "retarded."

Another perfectly good word down the drain.

Same thing happened to "crippled". Another perfectly good word that means what is says and says what it means. But some soft-heads decided it was icky.

So we got "disabled". When that was too disturbing, we got "handicapped", which is on the verge of retirement in favor of "differently-abled".

You see what's happening here?

The fact is, the underlying reality, whether being feeble-minded or crippled, totaly SUCKS.

And stupid do-gooders imagine they can change the underlying reality by changing the words we use to describe it.

So, they keep changing the names.

But eventually "disabled" brings to mind the reality of people who are crippled. And as soon as that happens, they have to change the word to try to escape the realization of that underlying reality.

They will not accept the plain, unpleasant fact that some people are feeble-minded and some people are crippled.

The underlying reality is so scary, so unpleasant, so distressing to these people; they are so unable to come to grips with the simple reality of it, that they continue to believe that if they just change the name, they will somehow change, or improve, or banish, or not have to face, the reality.

But, people are still retarded and still crippled.

God only knows what we'll be calling them in ten years.

Now...how does this relate to the changing names of people-of-color?

I can't help but wonder if it isn't the same psychology at work.

It would make me sad to think that black people are so unhappy being black that they keep trying to change the descriptor in the attempt to change the underlying reality.

But I can't think of another reason.

Look, when blacks were called "colored people", it was the improvement from "nigger". When they insisted they be called "Negroes" it was the improvement from "colored". When they insisted upon being called "Afro-American" it was the improvement from "Negroes".  When they insisted upon being called "black" it was the improvement over "Afro-Americans", and now the politically correct term is the seven syllable "African-American", (which I absolutely refuse to substitute for the simple one syllable "black".)

This seems to be of great importance to blacks*...that you call them by the currently acceptable appellation. I just can't feel it.

I'm white. I like being white. You might even say I'm proud of my whiteness. I wasn't for most of my life. I just took it for granted and never gave it much thought. But after being told for years what a racist I am, what a shit I am because of the color of my skin, what horrors my race perpetrated upon the world, and all other peoples. Endlessly. After enduring the violent, aggressive, in-my-face insults by "colored" people who were, in fact, inveterate racists...I decided to embrace my race, so here I am. White and proud.

But the thing is, I'm also comfortable; secure in my whiteness, happy; content in my paleness. I think it's beautiful.

In fact, I prefer white features. I prefer white skin.

I'm not "exclusive", but it's a general preference.

I don't mean to disparage other races, I presume they feel the same about their racial characteristics and skin colors. It's just the way of the diverse world, right?

And, I don't care what you call me. I'll embrace honky, whitey, person-of pallor. I don't give a shit. Because I like the underlying reality. And in the end, all the descriptors are just saying, and ultimately come to mean, "I'm White".

And I'm cool with that.

So. I feel bad that blacks keep changing what they want to be called, and at the same time aggressively insist on their racial pride. Because their actions seem to belie their protestations. In fact, it seems to me that deep down, they don't like their underlying reality: their blackness. Even while they "doth protest too much".

And I can't think of anything sadder than that.

The Gunslinger
____________________________________

*I'm speaking in generalities here, of course, there are some black people to whom this is not important. But I have found that it is VERY important to "professional" Negroes, "victim" blacks and most Liberal African-Americans.

It's probably no surprise that I don't know any whites that even consider such things with regard to their own race. Ever.

(Nor could they come up with—at the drop of a hat—three common ways to describe the white race in one sentence. At least not three that weren't coined by other races to insult us!)