Auggie,

Thanks for your response.

Let me clarify. I am concerned about people be consistent about the use of capitol letters for racial and ethnic group names.

That being said, I am aware that it is standard practice NOT to capitolize "Black" when using it as a referent for people of African descent {and not to captitolize "White" either} . However, since I like to be consistent, I capitolize both the group referents "Black" and "White". Frankly, if those two referents were not capitolized, it wouldn't matter much to me.

I recognize that as my unique practice [almost like my coined word "UnitedStaters" since I have this thing about people in the United States thinking we are the only ones who are Americans].

In my post I had written that using a small 'n' for Negro was viewed as a put-down and worse. Notice that I didn't say that about using a small "b" for Black. However, I can see how you could have thought that I meant that "put down or worse" comment referred to all the examples that I gave.

I do believe that a capitol letter should be used for Negro and Arab.

Taht being said, I DO think that a small letter was used for "negro", or "arab" in the above post either because they were typos, or because the posters grew up doing so [habit/custom]. I have seen a small 'n' used for Negro on the African American Spirituals Permathread for instance when the poster was quoting historical sources-since [for whatever reason] it was the norm to use a small letter for that referent.

My reason for posting my comment was that I wanted to take the opportunity to share information on the ways that writing group references have changed. I also wanted to take that opportunity to point out that some people of African and Arabian descent could view the use of the small letters as a put down or worse {an example of conscious or unconcious racism}.

I suppose "put down" does mean "insult". But I wasn't really insulted, since I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I believe that alot of multicultural misunderstandings happen because people just don't know..

In the 1990s there was an African American slogan that was placed on tee shirts and ads in Black magazines that said:

"It's a Black thang-You wouldn't understand".

I would like non-Black people to understand.

If there were other acknowledged Black people here, I'd give this 'mission' more of a rest {since I am interested in many more things than race and ethnicity}. However, the only other person who I know on Mudcat who has publicly acknowledged her Black descent is Hilda Fish and she is from Australia. Consequently, when comments are posted about African Americans or information could be shared about African American culture, I feel compelled to do so.

There have been so many Mudcat threads lately about race and racism, most specifically talking about Black/White issues. I would not be true to myself if I didn't post my comments AND seize those teaching moments to share cultural information.

Furthermore, I believe that it is historically and sociologically important to document demographical information about customs and use of words etc. So when I post on a Mudcat thread such as "English to English" and "Children's Street Songs", I usually will make reference to the race/ethnicity of the people using those words or performing those songs. In that sense I am adding details to the historical record..

But if someone started a thread on astrology or dream interpretation-two of my other interest-I would not be referring to race, because it would not be relevant.

I hope that these remarks are taken in the spirit that I intended them.

I believe that music can make the whole world kin. Yet families who have been seperated for a long time often have spend some time getting to know each other.

I'm trying to strike the right balance here. I take care not to be to heavy handed and preachy regarding my 'teaching moments' since that is not necessarily what folks came to Mudcat for.

I came to Mudcat for information about folk music-specifically children's rhymes and secular slave songs. But as a result of my being here, not only am I learning more about those topics, I am also learning about other music genres. And-even better-I have met some many interesting people from different parts of the world.

And I didn't mean to insult any of them. Please forgive me if you thought that I did.


Azizi