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Originally Posted by dippin
Among other things, but it also means dark or shadowy. Which again points to the importance of context, so I don't get why you are laughing out loud.
Let me go even further here: In Brazil and Lusophone Africa, the word Negro is actually the preferred term of reference for blacks as an ethnic group. That is so not because of some magical quality of the word, but because of historical context. Preto (which means Black too, but is more used on day to day life to refer to the color) was the word with the dehumanizing context in Brazil, Angola and elsewhere, so "preto" is the offensive reference term over there, and not negro.
So much so that the "Black Consciousness Movement" from South Africa was translated as Movimento da Consciencia Negra in Brazil.
So all of this really just reinforces my previous point, and as such I don't see what is so funny about it.
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Because you were saying how wrong it was for people from Portugal to call them black, then you refer to them as blacks four times after that. I understand the point of context, and agree, the word carries a massive amount of weight in one region of the world while the same word translated is considered the politically correct term. When you go around the world and that same explosive word has wildly varying levels of connotations, it reaches a level of absurdity. I'm not sure if that diminishes the edge it has in America because, as stated, the context, but understanding a more encompassing view on its history puts it in perspective somewhat.