Why Do African Americans Refer to Anglo America Men as Boys?
Mar 15, 2020 19:52:49 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Mar 15, 2020 19:52:49 GMT -5
Why Do African Americans Refer to Anglo America Men as Boys?
Just recently I encountered a white man on the you tube comment section complaining that Afro Americans keep calling white men boys. He felt that the term is racist and very justifiable so since the term "boy" conveys some kind of a deficiency in physical development and assumes that it is based on race. So it's offensiveness is never in doubt and the ones using it are fully aware that it is indeed a racist offensive term. The question is why? Why do Afro Americans persist in referring to Anglo American men as boys? Well, in order to understand the present, it is essential to examine the past since the past is inextricably linked to the social conditions that we observe in the preset. It is no different in this case. Even more so since in this particular case it is not a distant past but a relatively recent one.
I am referring to the time when African Americans were slaves and the period of time the immediately fallowed it in the South after the end of the Civil War and which included emancipation. During that time, Anglo American men in the USA customarily used the term "boy" when addressing full-grown African American males in order to infuse a sense of inferiority and in that way keep them submissive. This was so not only during slavery but during the time immediately following the emancipation when Jim Crow Laws were instituted to keep African Americans in their place.
Now, it isn't hard to imagine the bitterness that such a cruel custom must have produced. The sense of humiliation must have been very intense and the inability to strike back either verbally or physically very frustrating. One might say that it was in the past and the past must be forgotten. Unfortunately, such bitterness tends to persist. It doesn't just suddenly vanish in just a few generations. Especially if it is constantly reinforced with treatment which conveys that same humiliating message but in indirect albeit equally offensive ways such as forcing African Americans to abide by those cruel Jim Crow laws designed to continue to make them feel inferior.
So it should really come as no surprise that the term "boy" began to be used and is still being used towards white men in that fashion in the United states by the decedents of those men who had to suffer such an indignity in silence lest incurred a savage beating or wind up dead for having dared to raise a very justifiable objection. Not surprising at all.
blackthen.com/the-word-boy-as-a-derogatory-insult-towards-black-men-am-i-not-a-man/
I am referring to the time when African Americans were slaves and the period of time the immediately fallowed it in the South after the end of the Civil War and which included emancipation. During that time, Anglo American men in the USA customarily used the term "boy" when addressing full-grown African American males in order to infuse a sense of inferiority and in that way keep them submissive. This was so not only during slavery but during the time immediately following the emancipation when Jim Crow Laws were instituted to keep African Americans in their place.
Now, it isn't hard to imagine the bitterness that such a cruel custom must have produced. The sense of humiliation must have been very intense and the inability to strike back either verbally or physically very frustrating. One might say that it was in the past and the past must be forgotten. Unfortunately, such bitterness tends to persist. It doesn't just suddenly vanish in just a few generations. Especially if it is constantly reinforced with treatment which conveys that same humiliating message but in indirect albeit equally offensive ways such as forcing African Americans to abide by those cruel Jim Crow laws designed to continue to make them feel inferior.
So it should really come as no surprise that the term "boy" began to be used and is still being used towards white men in that fashion in the United states by the decedents of those men who had to suffer such an indignity in silence lest incurred a savage beating or wind up dead for having dared to raise a very justifiable objection. Not surprising at all.
blackthen.com/the-word-boy-as-a-derogatory-insult-towards-black-men-am-i-not-a-man/