Commentary On Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Apology For Calling President Obama A Light-Skinned African-American Who Lacked A Negro Dialect
U.S. Senator Harry Reid Of Nevada
Posted Sunday, January 10, 2010
(National News)
Commentary By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of The Determiner Weekly.Com and
The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada just apologized relative comments he made in somebody else's book where he relegates President Barack Obama to a “ light skinned African-American who lacked a 'Negro' dialect.” Did he really say “Negro” in the 21st century?” Sophisticated politicians, whether Black, White or other, do not use the word “Negro” for purposes of public consumption.
As a child of the 70s my mother often geared my three siblings and me to use the word Black rather than "Negro." Simply put, the word "Negro" is too similar to the word nigger, anyway you cut it. As kids of Civil Rights advocates and educators we knew what it meant for our mother, and father too, for that matter, to stir us away from the word "Negro" and towards the word Black. It meant that the word Black is a proud recognition for Black people. During that time the word African-American was not popular and mucian and Civil Rights advocate James Brown was screaming “Say it loud I'm Black and I'm proud.”
As we moved from the 80s to the 90s and Black people stood proud but did not announce it as much my mother would say that “we need to go back to saying we are Black and proud.”
I wonder if Senator Reid would be under fire if he had not linked the words light- skinned and "Negro" dialect in the same sentence. What is a "Negro" dialect anyway and since when does a White man use the well known phrase among Blacks of “ light-skinned?" Perhaps Harry Reid is hipper than Blacks give him credit for. Have we as Blacks focused too much on being “light-skinned"? Is Reid's reference a reflection of the intra-group hostility among some Blacks who believe that the closer to White that we are, whether through out light-skinned brothers, sisters, cousins and friends or our anti-Black dispositions, the better off we are in America where people of European decent ultimately rule?
I like to believe that it matters more how a Congress person votes than what he or she says. Unless, of course, it is way out of line like the “ nappy headed hos” remark made by radio personality Don Imus against Black female college basketball players. Senator Reid has voted for the interests of the Black community in more ways than one and Blacks should not forget it. But I cannot stop wondering the extent of Reid's naivete. Was the senator asleep during the late 60s and 70s when Black people dropped the word "Negro" for “Say it loud I'm Black and I'm Proud?”
I remember the night of November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama was unofficially declared the first Black President of the United States of America by CNN television. I was at the now defunct Lancer Steakhouse in Cleveland, Oh. where the movers and shakers like Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Political Strategist Arnold Pinkney and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes were just elated over his victory. Two days later my article on the election was published in the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's historical Black press with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. At that time I would have never imagined that the most powerful Democrat other than Obama, or a soon to be Senate Majority Leader by the name of Harry Reid, would be publicly apologizing a year later for relegating Blacks to "Negros," simply to make a buck on a book that some question as being written by him anyway.
The word “Negro” is outdated in more ways than one. I like to say that I am still Black and still proud. Black members of Congress should turn to Senator Harry Reid and say the same thing, though I am sure that divisiveness within the ranks of the Democratic party is not another naive mistake that Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other ranking congressional Democrats want to continue to make.
Posted Sunday, January 10, 2010
(National News)
Commentary By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of The Determiner Weekly.Com and
The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada just apologized relative comments he made in somebody else's book where he relegates President Barack Obama to a “ light skinned African-American who lacked a 'Negro' dialect.” Did he really say “Negro” in the 21st century?” Sophisticated politicians, whether Black, White or other, do not use the word “Negro” for purposes of public consumption.
As a child of the 70s my mother often geared my three siblings and me to use the word Black rather than "Negro." Simply put, the word "Negro" is too similar to the word nigger, anyway you cut it. As kids of Civil Rights advocates and educators we knew what it meant for our mother, and father too, for that matter, to stir us away from the word "Negro" and towards the word Black. It meant that the word Black is a proud recognition for Black people. During that time the word African-American was not popular and mucian and Civil Rights advocate James Brown was screaming “Say it loud I'm Black and I'm proud.”
As we moved from the 80s to the 90s and Black people stood proud but did not announce it as much my mother would say that “we need to go back to saying we are Black and proud.”
I wonder if Senator Reid would be under fire if he had not linked the words light- skinned and "Negro" dialect in the same sentence. What is a "Negro" dialect anyway and since when does a White man use the well known phrase among Blacks of “ light-skinned?" Perhaps Harry Reid is hipper than Blacks give him credit for. Have we as Blacks focused too much on being “light-skinned"? Is Reid's reference a reflection of the intra-group hostility among some Blacks who believe that the closer to White that we are, whether through out light-skinned brothers, sisters, cousins and friends or our anti-Black dispositions, the better off we are in America where people of European decent ultimately rule?
I like to believe that it matters more how a Congress person votes than what he or she says. Unless, of course, it is way out of line like the “ nappy headed hos” remark made by radio personality Don Imus against Black female college basketball players. Senator Reid has voted for the interests of the Black community in more ways than one and Blacks should not forget it. But I cannot stop wondering the extent of Reid's naivete. Was the senator asleep during the late 60s and 70s when Black people dropped the word "Negro" for “Say it loud I'm Black and I'm Proud?”
I remember the night of November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama was unofficially declared the first Black President of the United States of America by CNN television. I was at the now defunct Lancer Steakhouse in Cleveland, Oh. where the movers and shakers like Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Political Strategist Arnold Pinkney and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes were just elated over his victory. Two days later my article on the election was published in the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's historical Black press with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. At that time I would have never imagined that the most powerful Democrat other than Obama, or a soon to be Senate Majority Leader by the name of Harry Reid, would be publicly apologizing a year later for relegating Blacks to "Negros," simply to make a buck on a book that some question as being written by him anyway.
The word “Negro” is outdated in more ways than one. I like to say that I am still Black and still proud. Black members of Congress should turn to Senator Harry Reid and say the same thing, though I am sure that divisiveness within the ranks of the Democratic party is not another naive mistake that Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other ranking congressional Democrats want to continue to make.
.jpeg)
Comments