Slightest, but important, social tidbit re The Crying of Lot 49

[Mark Kohut]

p. 98 [Oedipa].."riding among an exhausted busful of Negroes"...

When did the word 'Negro' stop being used by writers, novelists
in America at least, as THE overall descriptive word?

Remember *Crying* was published in 1966, some part copyrighted
in 65, before the Black Power movement, before all that came
right before and then right after the period *Inherent Vice* is set.

Don't know? I do. Starting and quickly happening from 1968 on,
African-American
and black began to be the descriptive word choice. Different conceptual
uses but 'black' preferred usually since that was the self-identity
preferred,
---see Black Power--- as argued for by those so demeaned.


Jump cut:
Richard Ford. Anyone a fan? I'm not. There are multiple reasons but here is
one.
I was reading a later work, in the 2000's probably, certainly the 90s...and
it is set long after 1968, in the recent past of the time if I remember
aright and
his character, a white guy of course, says Negro! "Negro!'. And there is no
reason
to believe that such backward 'values' are part of his character. It may
even
have been an elided authorial narrator, dunno, has melted in details cause
I haven't retold it.

This novel, which i could look up, was, I think, the first after the
industry news-making
split with the legendary editor who helped make him a success. No one talks.
Full of myself, I often wonder whether it was over such as that
anachronistic
use of the word.

Richard Ford was born in Mississippi.
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