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Article: `Negro' was a misnomer, `West Indian' still is
- Article from:
- New York Amsterdam News
- Article date:
- August 20, 1994
- Author:
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Yusef Salaam
New York Amsterdam News
08-20-1994
`Negro' was a misnomer, `West Indian' still is.
When the editor got on his last nerve, Peter Noel, my former colleague at AmNews, used to declare, "He better stop messing with me because I'm one of those crazy West Indians." I'd laugh and say to him: "Negro, you really are crazy if you think you are any kind of Indian - Western, Eastern, Southern or Northern. "Noel would burst out in his jovial, throaty Trinidadian-accented laugh. Then I'd remind him that he was an African, not an Indian, not a so-called West Indian.
Of course, Noel knows that he is an African, but it is hard for him and millions of others like him to get away from calling ...