« Obama Just Lost My Vote | Main | A Native American Writes to Iran »

June 29, 2007

"Black" is an Adjective, Not a Noun

I am really surprised by what I view as offensive language being used by AP reporter Nedra Pickler and Democratic consultant Jenny Backus today in a Forbes article about Barack Obama, entitled, "Vying to be the 'Second Black President.'" What offends me is the repeated use of the word "black" as a noun. It may not seem like a big deal, and not being black myself maybe I'm fighting someone else's fight, but in my mind, it objectifies and thereby demeans black people to call them "blacks." I've never felt comfortable with it. For the record, I don't like the term "whites" either.

Here are the offensive passages:

Polls show that blacks are closely divided between Obama and Clinton, with other candidates gathering less support. …

Blacks generally are more liberal than average voters - liberal longshot Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio was the other audience favorite - so the trick for candidates is to appeal to blacks without alienating the rest of the electorate.

Democratic consultant Jenny Backus said Obama's effort to speak to whites and blacks resulted in his best debate yet.

"Obama took his performance to a different level by showing the ability to have a conversation that was about race that wasn't just one way," Backus said. "He was talking to both whites and blacks in his answers."

I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Blacks - as a plural noun can be pejorative, as in South Africa. Black people is more sensitive.

In fact, after stewing about this all morning, I was gratified to discover that this very issue has come up before in coverage of Obama's candidacy when, back in January, the AP referred to him as "the lone black" in the Senate. At that time, Keith Woods, Dean of Faculty at Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, had this to say of the use of "black" as a noun:

"Using color as a noun reduces the person to a species, and an imprecise one at that, particularly where Obama is concerned. He's bi-racial and, thus, more than a "black." But the larger issue for me is that it's an act of dehumanizing the person, summoning up their essence by rendering them an inanimate color.

It's no more complicated than that, and the solution is as simple as turning race/color into an adjective and adding man, woman, politician, father, etc. If that takes more effort to craft a headline, lead, super or crawl, well, that's a problem for journalists that the subjects of their journalism and the rest of the consuming public ought not have to shoulder."

The AP also in January ran a lead on Fox News reading, "Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said Tuesday he is taking the initial step in a presidential bid that could make him the nation's first black to occupy the White House."

I making a mountain out of a molehill? Does this bother black people as much as it bothers me?

Posted by Becky at June 29, 2007 12:16 PM