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Monday, March 18
The Indiana Daily Student

Black Voices

Black Voices: I am a Black person not a “Black”

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Stop calling Black people “Blacks”. It’s sad we even have to touch on this issue because common sense should tell you why this won’t fly. 

I am more than my color. 

You should not refer to anyone as just a color, especially not a Black person. I am a Black person, not a Black. Do not reduce Black people to their color; we are more than our skin tone.

Calling Black people “Blacks” is the same as calling me a negro. Both negro and the N-word came from the incapacity to correctly pronounce the color black in various languages and using black as a slur. Negro came from the Spanish word for black and the N-word came from the Latin word for black, niger. 

Starting with Post Reconstruction and the rise of the KKK and continuing in the Jim Crow era, the words “negro”, the n-word and “colored” were used on various mediums to openly discriminate against the Black community in public spaces like bathrooms, entrances to restaurants, drinking fountains and more. 

The history of denoting the Black community to its color does not make it appropriate to call Black people “Blacks” today. Black people don’t even call each other “Blacks”. 

People even pretend to be Black while committing a crime. Usually adding they hate minorities at the same time, as if that makes sense. 

A person in Lakewood, California, who claimed to be Black, said they would shoot every minority in sight. This turned out to be non-credible and a possible swatting, which is the act of calling the police on an innocent person with a false claim. 

With history and current society in mind, it would be best if when referring to Black people you just called them Black people, African-American or their names and if you’re not sure, ask with common sense. I think America and the world has done enough demoting people to just their color to last a millennia. 

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