Pick a name, any name-negro, colored, black or African American. Call a people by any name and they are still the same people, right? Wrong!

The name that you respond to determines the degree of your self worth. Similarly the way a group of people collectively respond to a name can have devastating effects on their lives, particularly if they did not choose their name.

Asians come from Asia and have pride in the Asian race. Europeans come from Europe and have pride in European accomplishments. Negroes, I am to assume, come from Negroland-a mythical country with an uncertain past and an even more uncertain future. Since Negroland is a myth, where did the myth of the negro originate? The key to understanding what a negro is, is to understand the definition of that word and its origin.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to enslave Africans, and they were the first to call them negroes. When the Spanish became involved in the slave trade, they also used the word negro to describe Africans. Negro is an adjective which means black in Portuguese and Spanish. But since 1444, and the beginning of the slave trade, the adjective negro became a noun and the legitimate name of a newly enslaved people.