Where I grew up in the South, back in the 1950s, it was normal for adult whites to call adult black men “boy”, as in “Hey, boy, bring me that shovel.” It wasn’t until I started working with the SCLC that I really understood just how offensive that was. I remember being in the Washington National Airport with one of my trainers from the SCLC, we were flying off to do some organizing in another city, and we overheard a white man say to one of the porters, “Hey, boy, take my suitcase”. My friend just about exploded. I hadn’t even really noticed, because it was just the way people talked where I come from. But I could see just how much it hurt my friend. Was he being oversensitive? I don’t think so. That word used that way expressed of an attitude which refused to admit that black men could ever be adults. Anyone who thinks that’s just oversensitive political correctness hasn’t thought this through and perhaps more importantly hasn’t felt it through.
Where I grew up in the South, back in the 1950s, it was normal for adult whites to call adult black men “boy”, as in “Hey, boy, bring me that shovel.” It wasn’t until I started working with the SCLC that I really understood just how offensive that was. I remember being in the Washington National Airport with one of my trainers from the SCLC, we were flying off to do some organizing in another city, and we overheard a white man say to one of the porters, “Hey, boy, take my suitcase”. My friend just about exploded. I hadn’t even really noticed, because it was just the way people talked where I come from. But I could see just how much it hurt my friend. Was he being oversensitive? I don’t think so. That word used that way expressed of an attitude which refused to admit that black men could ever be adults. Anyone who thinks that’s just oversensitive political correctness hasn’t thought this through and perhaps more importantly hasn’t felt it through.