Negro is an archaic racial term referring to people who have skin that has high melanin content, referring to persons of African ethnic origin. Prior to the shift in the lexicon of American and worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s, the appellation was accepted as a normal neutral formal term both by those of African descent as well as non-African blacks. Now it is often considered an ethnic slur[1][2][3] although the term is still used in some contexts for historical reasons such as in the name of the United Negro College Fund[4].
"Negro" means "black" in Spanish and Portuguese, and the Italian "nero" is similar (Latin: niger = "black").
Modern synonyms in common use include:
"black"
"dark-skinned" or "swarthy"
"African" (though White Africans can be considered African but not Negroes)
"African American" in the United States
"Colored" (In the United States, as in the Commonwealth Coloured generally means mixed race)
History Of NEGRO courtesy of Wikipedia.
