Andy Rooney: "'Negro' Is a Perfectly Good Word"
<p><img hspace="0" border="0" align="right" src="media/2005-11-04-MSNBCImus.jpg" />On Friday morning’s <i>Imus in the Morning </i>program on MSNBC, Andy Rooney, from CBS, interrupted the I-Man’s positive description of Democratic Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., to state that he doesn’t like the term "African-American" and considered "Negro" to be "a perfectly good word."<br /> </p><p>Imus described Ford as an "African-American" prompting Rooney to interject, "I object every time I hear the word, words ‘African-American.’ You know? I don’t know why we have gotten caught with that." After saying he doesn’t want to be called an ‘Irish-American,’ Rooney went on to state his preference for another term, "The word ‘Negro’ is a perfectly good word, it’s a strong word and a good word. I don’t see anything wrong with that." Video Available: <a href="media/2005-11-04-IMUS.wmv">Windows Media</a> or <a href="media/2005-11-4-IMUS.rm">Real Player</a></p><p>Dictionary.com offers a counter view of Rooney’s feelings about ‘Negro.’ In reference to the ‘usage note’ under ‘black’ it states that "It was not until the late 1960s that <i>black</i> (or <i>Black</i>) gained its present status as a self-chosen ethnonym with strong connotations of racial pride, replacing the then-current Negro among Blacks and non-Blacks alike with remarkable speed."</p><p><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=black">Link to 'usage note'</a></p>