Gray: Time for NAACP to change its name

Published 6:00 am Friday, August 11, 2023

For the past five years, I have been on a one-woman crusade to let the world know that it is time for a change at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. It’s time to replace or remove the term “colored” from the name of the organization.

When the term “colored people” is used to describe us, I feel the anger, hatred, humiliation and segregation that word has historically conveyed. In continuing to use the term, the NAACP might as well be telling Black people to sit at the back of the bus.

This slur separates Black people as human beings from the rest of the world. There are no other race of people called “colored” except for us. When “colored people” is used, everyone knows which people are being referred to — and everyone can hear all of the indignity and prejudice long associated with the use of that term.

The NAACP, a revered organization that has fought for Black people’s rights, is itself in violation of those same rights by continuing to use the oppressive term.

My ancestors were beaten, jailed and killed because of the word “colored” and the hateful attitudes it contains. The NAACP was instrumental in getting the word removed from signage at restaurants, restrooms and water fountains — yet the word still remains in its name. Why? What is the justification for perpetuating the use of this tainted word and all it represents?

To me, the term “colored people” holds the same meaning as all of the Confederate statues that have come down across the country in the past few years. Likewise, this offensive term itself is an outdated “statue” that needs to be removed from the American lexicon.

How can the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People claim to stand for advancement when it remains unwilling to advance itself? To my mind, the continued use of “colored people” keeps us frozen in time, bound to the Jim Crow era.

And this nomenclature certainly fails to acknowledge the hard-won progress — advancement — that Black people have achieved over generations. Is this the organization’s intent? To keep us frozen in time and to hold us back?

With all of the changes that are happening for the betterment of our country and the American people, the NAACP should also — as millions of demonstrators have proclaimed over the years — “take its knee off our necks and let us breathe.”

Calling us “colored people” is no longer acceptable to Black people, nor should it be accepted from the country’s leading organization for Black people. That term does nothing to advance our condition, position and role in society, and it should have no place in our future.

On behalf of myself, my children and grandchildren, fellow Americans and my race, I implore the NAACP to finally replace or remove the term “colored people” from the organization’s name.

Anyone with questions is free to call me at (903) 352-2155 or email me at sitterpillowcomany@gmail.com . Thank you for your consideration.