Harry Reid apologizes for "negro" comment
Harry Reid had to apologize because he got caught using the word "negro." Good.
Reid's remarks were revealed in a new book, "Game Change" by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann about the 2008 race. According to the book, Reid was impressed by Obama's candidacy during the primary campaign, and privately said the country was ready for a black president – particularly a "light-skinned" one "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." [Politico]
Reid isn't just a doddering old uncle who hasn't updated his racial vocabulary since the Eisenhower era. There was a time when "negro" was a neutral, socially acceptable word. (Think: The United Negro College Fund.) But language changes. Maybe there are some ancient, out-of-touch folks who aren't racist but who still haven't gotten that memo.
Reid's not one of them. He's the Senate Majority Leader and he knows better. We know he does because he manages to hold off on the "negro" talk on TV and on the senate floor. I doubt he uses that term in front of his junior staff or at parties. Yet, evidently he felt free to use the word behind closed doors, with other powerful white people. That's ugly.
Ironically, Reid used the word while making a rather banal observation. There were literally dozens of articles in the national press in 2008 about Obama's "post racial" image, which is a nicer way of saying the same thing. Still, Reid knows perfectly well that "negro" is an inflammatory, pejorative term. If he used that word, that was presumably the connotation he was after.
I'm glad Halperin chose to embarrass Reid. This kind of behavior continues because powerful people expect other members of the club to cover for them. Reid deserved to sweat over this.
[Addendum: We've got to get over the idea that criticizing racist behavior is tantamount to calling someone a bigot. I don't know how Harry Reid feels about black people. His innermost feelings are irrelevant to this discussion. I do know that he got caught speaking disrespectfully about a colleague. So, he had to apologize. That's how it's supposed to work.
Acceptable behavior is negotiated. There's no Universally Accepted Set of Rules for Not Acting Racist that we can all refer to. We learn what's okay by how people react. The Reid furor shows that there's an overwhelming consensus in that the word "negro" is no longer okay. Anyone who insists on using it is committing a major social faux pas, whether they mean any disrespect or not.
Language is like currency. You can't go around insisting that your words mean exactly what you want them to. It's like proclaiming that a $20 bill in your hands is worth $50 because you say it is. You can't use a word that's universally regarded as disrespectful and insist that it's respectful when you say it. In order to be respectful, you've got to act in a way signals respect to the other person. The would-be respecter doesn't get to make the rules.]