Obama signs bill striking offensive terms for minority groups from U.S. laws
WASHINGTON » Federal laws will no longer include outdated and offensive terms used to describe minority groups.
President Barack Obama signed a bill striking the several terms, including “Negro” and “Oriental” on Friday, the White House said.
Those terms will be replaced with “African American” and “Asian American.”
The bill removing the terms passed the House in February and the Senate last week. No one in either chamber objected.
The language targeted by the bill had appeared in laws dating to the 1970s that attempted to define minorities.
In the Department of Energy Organization Act the phrases “a Negro, Puerto Rican, American Indian, Eskimo, Oriental, or Aleut or is a Spanish speaking individual of Spanish descent” will be replaced with “Asian American, Native Hawaiian, a Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Native American, or an Alaska Native.”
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The same language changes will be made to the Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1976.
23 responses to “Obama signs bill striking offensive terms for minority groups from U.S. laws”
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There is a conflict of interest as the African American signed the bill. Can’t we all be just plain old Americans?
No. Are you a whitee?
Not if you want Entitlements
yeah…replacing Puerto Rican with Puerto Rican makes a whole lot of sense.
Puerto Ricans are residents of Puerto Rico. The majority of Puerto Ricans are descendants of immigrants from Spain and some are descendants of immigrants from Africa, so why are they being called Hispanic or African Americans instead of Puerto Ricans?
Correction.Make that “why aren’t they being called Hispanics or African Americans…..”
Maybe he can finally list this on his POSITIVE Legacy List which is totally blank. C’mon …O needs something to distract from his NEGATIVE legacy List which is on it’s 100th page and counting?
Positive? This is more Negative Politically Correctness BS to be added to the NEGATIVE Legacy. I think he is all golfed out and tired of twiddling his thumbs, thinking of something to do.
From: H S Truman
Political Correctness is a doctrine, recently fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and promoted by a sick mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of sh#t by the clean end!
Now, with special thanks to the Truman Museum and Harry himself, you and I finally have a full understanding of what POLITICAL CORRECTNESS really means…..
“Don’t call me an African American!” I wasn’t born in Africa, I’m from Harlem! Guess who said dat!
Farakhan?
alexander hamilton?
J.Edgar Hoover
Next decade they will eliminate these new offensive terms.
It should be “Sub-Saharan African Americans”, as North Africa is Arab.
Right, Jesse?
You are right, so what do we call Arabs from North Africa? Aren’t they also African Americans?
Arabs.
Sand Ni@@ers
British Americans, yeah that’s it. Those pinch nosed snots.
I’ve seen articles describing people of African ancestry as “African-American” — even if they’re not American (for example, they’re from Africa or France). Calling someone “African-American” or “Asian-American” is fine if you know for a fact that they are American citizens, but those terms are NOT very accurate to describe someone’s race.
That was my thought also. While I agree that the time for the words that are being replaced has passed, some might be offended if they’re called American when they are not.
It does not appear like much thought was given to the terms to be applied to ethnic groups. For example, exactly what is an Asian American under the new law? Most people seem to apply the term to people from Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam and Mongolia who have very similar physical and facial characteristics. However, Asia is a continent that also includes many people with different physical and facial characteristics in countries such as Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, The Philippines and a few more. It includes Caucasians, Arabs, Persians, Malays, and other ethnic groups. However, they are from Asia so shouldn’t people from the entire Asian continent living in the US be called Asian Americans? Just wondering.
I know it’s about re-labelling minorities but is it okay to refer to a caucasian man as a “cracker” or “white boy” or should it be melanin-challenged?