Women of color call out Dictionary.com's 'offensive' definition of 'black': 'This needs to change

Yahoo ^ | June 7, 2019 | Paulina Cachero

[myerson]

“The moment the definitions are changed, the world will be required to refer to people of color as something other than “black”. Mark my words.”

That’s because a rose by any other name is still a rose. It’s not the “word” that’s offensive, it’s what the word represents that is intrinsically offensive.

[aquila48]

What about “black hole”?

[dfwgator]

[aquila48]

“These people are silly and have too much time on their hands.”

We’re suffering from a serious case of Affluenza... and it can actually destroy a civilization.

[EdnaMode]

Good question. Guess it will have to be renamed.

[TigersEye]

Proving once again ... you can’t fix stupid.

[caww]

.....”the world will be required to refer to people of color as something other than “black”.......

Insecure Blacks just continuing to frame their race and color as something else than they are.....THEY consistently segregate who they are such as distinctive African-American names, their style and their Holidays. What will they then call themselves? I recall in the 60's it was Afro-American....then to African American.

[caww]

I have often wondered if blacks are so unhappy being black in America why they would not relocate to modern areas of Africa?

[hecticskeptic]

I’ve never seen a “black” person who is black. I’ve never known a “white” person who is white. Some come close, but none 100% so.

Well exactly... it all depends on the amount of a pigment called melanin. Which means that I think I have a reason to be offended.... They want to command how the word 'black' gets used but I (and everyone else too) also have some of that melanin....perhaps to a lesser extent but it's there. Don't the rest of us have some minority rights on the word 'black'?

[Truthoverpower]

Sorry

We gots black
Folks. And white folks. Also brown folks.

Black folks call themselves that

White folks don’t say shiite

[caseinpoint]

These WOCs are attempting to appropriate the English language, aka cultural appropriation.

[smvoice]

No one will be happy until we’ve all poked our eyes out. That’s the only solution.

[Dr. Sivana]

Where sre all the linguists who insist they are descriptivists instead of prescriptivists and only report what the language is and not what is “should be”? Crickets?

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing. I have two children who are black (actually "brown", but that's how the language works).

Besides the negative connotations that are utterly legitimate, there are also positive ones. Every business wants to be "in the black". "Black soil" is the most fertile. "Black tie" expresses a level of formality and luxury, etc. I think the left handers have a better basis for complaints. Most of the connotations for left are sinister and negative. Left-handed compliments,for instance. No positive terms for left come to mind.

[Fedora]

Words with multiple definitions are racist (and sexist, according to feminists).

[Altura Ct.]

Women of color?

[eartick]

Effin black biotches always have something to complain about.

Just swap it with white, then yall will all be white and we will be black. BUT I guarantee this will not fix any of your social problems.

[ealgeone]

Is proper capitalization not a familiar concept to these folks?

[a fool in paradise]

Vanilla, white bread, and other terms are used in a derogatory manner to decry “normalcy”

[a fool in paradise]

take a little piece of aluminum foil, then tape it shiny side out in the dictionary under S next to “stupid” and wait until someone files a complaint about being insulted “at the library”.

[kosciusko51]

The word sinister is from Latin and means “left.”