I'm not sure where this discussion is heading
-Tangledwood

Tanglewood, with regard to your sentence that "Humans love to put each other into categories; Blond/brunette, black/white, Hindu/Moslem, Scottish/Irish, north or south of the river - just because you may be placed into a particular category doesn't necessarily mean that there is any negative judgement attached", I agree.

With regard to your question that I placed in italics, I generally write my purpose for starting threads in my first post to that thread. Although it could have better written, I stated that I had just read a Mudcat thread on the song "My Pretty Quadroon". A couple of people in that thread wrote comments in which they used a lower case letter for the group referent "Negro". As a means of sharing information, and not criticising those posters, I wrote a comment on that thread that addressed to a small degree the history of that group referent, and how, after the mid 1960s we [African Americans] don't use it except as a pejorative. O also addressed the meaning for us of capitol "N" and small "n" for that word.

In this thread, I wanted to explore and wanted other posters to join me in exploring the use-in real life, and in song-of the other referents that have been used for African Americans. In some sense this is akin to an "anthropological study" for its on sake. I also believe that talking about differences can help people learn about other people and cultures, and can help us realize that we are more alike than different.