EnviroLink Forum

A history lesson is in order.


http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/databa ... m?HHID=672


During the 1660s and 1670s, Maryland and Virginia adopted laws specifically designed to denigrate blacks. These laws banned interracial marriages and sexual relations and deprived blacks of property. Other laws prohibited blacks from bearing arms or traveling without written permission. In 1669, Virginia became the first colony to declare that it was not a crime to kill an unruly slave in the ordinary course of punishment. That same year, Virginia also prohibited masters from freeing slaves unless the freedmen were deported from the colony. Virginia also voted to banish any white man or woman who married a black, mulatto, or Indian.

Indeed the word comes from the Latin root niger through the
French usage of the 14th century meaning 'to blacken,' referring to reputation,
(syn. to sully) and 'to darken' referring to ambiguating that which is clear.

http://unauthorised.org/anthropology/an ... /0525.html

Now granted, the scholar in this link doesn't accept the racial implication of the word. However, I have seen it argued that using terms such as "blacken" as synonymous with "to sully" is inherently racial, and even descends from racism. Therefore, the term "denigrate" is a racial term.

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http://www.antebozanich.org

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http://www.antebozanich.org