Michael Hurst
1 min readJan 26, 2021

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Your discussion of the word Black or White focused on skin coloration is overblown. White people aren't white either, they are pink, or various shades of brown themselves. The term "Black" began to be used to replace "Negro", or "Colored", and was adopted as a means of addressing people respectfully. "Black is Beautiful" was adopted with pride early, Blacks enthusiastically adopted it in Black Power, the Black Panthers, there is even a TV hit called Blackish. "African American" is often objected to as well, as many Black people don't have an African ancestry, and millions are not Americans.

In addition, if there is no Black, then there should be no White. But then there would be no such concept as "White privilege", no such concept as "Driving while Black". We add labels in our society to facilitate talking about issues we care about. These labels get changed all the time, and unless they are hurtful, they should stop being the issue themselves.

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Michael Hurst
Michael Hurst

Written by Michael Hurst

Economist and public policy analyst, cyclist and paddler, and incorrigible old coot.

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