Perspective

The first thing to note about the perspective of this book is the use of the terms "Negro" and "black" to identify members of what would, in contemporary language, be defined as the African American community. These essays were written at a time of linguistic transition in this area. The term "Negro", with all its racist connotations, was beginning to move out of common usage and be replaced with "black", which itself eventually moved out of common usage to be replaced by "African-American", a term which had yet to be coined at the time this book was written. The use of both "Negro" and "black" in this analysis reflects their usage in the book, which is in turn reflective of the racist, transitional state of society at the time. It's interesting to consider this variety of terminology in the context of the quotation on p. 98, in which the...