I think you can say it. As far I’m aware that word hasn’t been banned yet – unless they want ban the decade you and I were born in. 🙂

NormanF on January 18, 2010 at 3:27 pm

Re ‘negritude’, like you said, I guess it depends who said it. Just like if Harry Reid says something its OK, but not someone else. I remember some people thought after the Clinton Monica Lewinsky episode that the feminazis would slink quietly away, but of course they didn’t. They still went after the non-politically correct when it suited their liberal purposes.

I think there’s guesswork most of the time whenever anyone picks up a book or sees a movie not known in advance to be a classic. If we were too exacting, we would never see or read anything new. I will sometimes read books by liberals just to relax if something else isn’t available, and the Amy Bloom book probably didn’t take very long to read. I believe the general emphasis of someone’s reading is always more important than which specific book someone read or movie someone saw on a particular day.

Little Al on January 18, 2010 at 3:30 pm

I’m guessing no. But if 50 cent says it he’ll make some mo’ cheddah.

Joe on January 18, 2010 at 3:36 pm

I also notice that you have a picture of Senghor on this post. Although not a Marxist, Senghor was a socialist, and the term ‘negritude’ as he expressed it suggests black pride. Of course it still depends who uses it, but probably because of its origins a newsreader probably wouldn’t lose their job by using it.

Little Al on January 18, 2010 at 3:44 pm

Bonzertude is pride in being politically incorrect. Political correctness is a cancer destroying America.

Bonzer Wolf on January 18, 2010 at 4:08 pm

Ummmmmmmm Cleo wasn`t black, therefore she could not possess any negritude. lol

Hermster on January 18, 2010 at 4:09 pm

If negro is no longer allowed then I guess we won’t be reading Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech out loud.

llano on January 18, 2010 at 5:20 pm

Cleopatra was of Hellenistic background. What is now called Greece. No matter how they try, this will not change. BTW, isn’t this similar to Obama’s crazy “church” or cult.

pat on January 18, 2010 at 5:46 pm

It sounds like a novel that will be on the remainder shelf before long, if it does not go directly into the recycling bin.

Worry01 on January 19, 2010 at 12:39 am

You can say it only if you’re a leftist lib.

Gabe on January 19, 2010 at 1:15 am

I don’t know about in English, but in French it is absolutely acceptable. Often black women are referred to as “négresse.” It is commonly used in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora (négritude and négresse – especially with reference to and in literature), but again this is in French circles. I’m not sure about English circles. Somehow I think a white person saying it in English might get a few notes from the PC police.

SquareMileWife on January 19, 2010 at 5:40 am

If it occurred or existedon the African continent it is “black”. Anything the Black Centrists find appealing is subsumed into their lexicon and history. Tiger Woods is 1/8 African in heritage but never identified himself in that racial context. Nevertheless, his success compelled his racial hijacking by the BCs.

BTW the “Game of Pharaohs” was invented by the Persians.

JLin on January 19, 2010 at 10:56 am

Speaking as a proud negress, you’d get odd looks if you used it and aren’t an old European. I’ve encountered it in literature, but it’s just not an American term. I always thought chess was invented in India, actually.

joconde on January 19, 2010 at 6:35 pm

Here in Washington, DC several years ago, a white guy lost his job with the DC government because he used the word ‘niggardly’, an old-fashioned word for ‘cheap’, in a conversation.

One of his fellow black workers, a real thin-skinned type, filed a complaint against him with the DC government.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Linky Drake on October 26, 2011 at 8:59 am