U.S. Army Issues Apology For Use Of "Negro" In Official Document

U.S. Army Issues Apology For Use Of “Negro” In Reference To Black Soldiers

The United States Army recently faced a slew of backlash for approving “negro” as an acceptable term to use when referring to African-American soldiers and now it seems all the uproar did not go in vain.

via Reuters

The U.S. Army has issued an apology and will no longer use the term “Negro” in a document on policies and procedures as an acceptable alternative to African American.

The Army Command Policy, known as AR 600-20, said “terms such as ‘Haitian’ or ‘Negro’ could be used in addition to ‘Black’ or ‘African American.'”

The issue was first reported by CNN on Thursday. The Army dropped the term the same day and issued the apology.

“The U.S. Army fully recognized, and promptly acted, to remove outdated language in Army Regulation 600-20 as soon as it was brought to our attention,” Army spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Alayne Conway said in a statement.

“We apologize to anyone we offended,” she said.

The U.S. Census Bureau stopped using the term last year after critics complained it was outdated and offensive and should be removed from the 2014 American Community Survey.

Apologies are all good and fine, but the real problem is that these racist incidents continue to happen long after the “I’m sorrys” have come and gone. SMH.