The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1915-03-27

JONI ~. Bruce OF 1OnKerS, N. l.,
known to the newspaper profession
among US throughout the United
States as Bruce Crit" takes issue
with the Hon. Ralph W. Tyler as to
the proper title by which the Negro
race in America should be known and
called. After asking the question,
Shall it be Negro, Afro-American or
colored? Bruce Grit" says:
1.-The first cargo Of black slaves that
were brought to the United States Of
America arrived in 1919 and were set
tied at jamestown, in the state Of
Virginia. They were unmistakably
Guinea Negroes, captured on the
Guinea coast and sold to the slave
traders (when not stolen outright by
these gentry by other tribesmen than
their own. From these twenty Ne
groes and the accretions to their num-
ber up to the period when the slave
trade was abolished (1sO9 their de-
scendants numbered in 1863 fraction
over 100000 souls.
'@The census Of 1890 showed that
there were 7,47O,O40 people classed as
Negroes, Of which number 6,337 $3.50
were pure blacks or of African de-
scent; of muiattoes, one-half Negro.
966,9S9; Of quadroons, one-quarter Ne
gro, 1O5, 1876; octoroons, one-eighth Ne
gro, 69,936, or total Of AfrO-Ameri-
cans, Negroids and "neithers," 1,132,-
O6O.
"The proposition to saddle either of
these names upon the black is not
fair one, since there are now more
than 100000 blacks against a mere
handful of variously mixed people who
are afraid or ashamed Of that robust
and meaningful term Negro, which is
the name Of genuine race which is
recognized by ethnOlogists the wide
world over--a race which occupies
place in natural history.
'These Observation-Disclosures result
Of alliances between black men and
white women, or vice versa, ask for too
much when they ask that we discard
the only proper and scientifically rec
ognized name, Negro, and adopt
hybrid, meaningless racial cognomen
representing type Of which white
men and black men are the creators.
1t is a case Of the tail wagging the dog.
''The terms Afro-American and col
Ored are makeshifts. They are apollo
getic. There Is no such race as the
Afro American race. There never was
such a race. The term 'colored' is
misleading and indefinite when applied
to people Of African descent 1t can
Apply equally to the Indian, japanese,
Chinese, Turk. Carib and white man,
only he Is colOrless and by courtesy Is
called white. AS designation Of that
branch Of the Negro race which is
neither white nor black. 1t doesn't fit,
and 1t cannot be made to fit by anna
teur ethnologists and scientists, white
or black. The Negro race, being in
the majority in this country. as the
statistics show, has the right to oppose
this mischievous attempt of the minor
ity party to change the family name
"a Negro can no more be an Afro
American than an Afro American can
be Caucasian except by a decree Of
court We can neither escape his
tory nor the Negro race. no matter
how we squirm, because our grand
parents were simon pure blacks, some
Of them, and some Of us have straight
hair, fair compilations and regular
white folks features. The die is east.
and we cannot change the existing or
der by academic argument and ques
tionable logic. The thing created is
not greater than its creator.
"Some Of these critics Of the word
Negro object to its use because it Is Il
reminder Of slavery and also that it II
corrupted into the vulgar term Mig
ger BY the same process OF reason
ing white men. both In Europe and
America, who were once slaves. some
Of them Of black masters. might object
to being called white. The term Mig.
ger has only recently-i. e.. within
hundred years or so-been regarded as
a term Of reproach.
''The white man has outlived his rec
Of the days Of his bondage
and risen superior to his past condi-
ton Thousands Of whites were slaves
tI Inx.ty