academic struggles

[drydem]

So, in my dissertation, I have a short section on Zora Neale Hurston and I'm having a lot of trouble with using the word negro. While it is a term that Hurston uses and is historically appropriate to what she was seeking, it still is kind of twinge worthy for me as a word, given the way in which it represents a phase of American history marked by official disenfranchisement of African American voters and the perpetration of horrible acts of intimidation and violence upon them. As is, I use the term but have a footnote about why. What do people think about this as an approach?

Comments

[wadam.livejournal.com]

I think that having a footnote about why you use the term is perfectly acceptable. It's something that it never would have occurred to me to do, but I suppose that writing about my research requires using the term so much that it's kind of become normalized for me. But now that you mention it, perhaps I have a footnote in my future as well.