I think the letter in [Monday’s] issue of the Daily by Godfred Yeboah deserves a reply. I am a very tolerant person, and I see no reason for him to get upset at calling a day “black.” This figure of speech has absolutely no racial connotation. People have been using that term for centuries.

Recall the “black plague/black death.” I am pretty sure that back in those days Europe wasn’t inhabited by many persons of African descent, yet it was meant to refer to the darkness of the event rather than a derogatory racial comment.

I know that I (and probably everyone in the world) has said “It is black as night.” Does that cast a “slur on black people?” Should we ban everyone from using the word “black” to describe anything that is negative at all?

Calling anyone who uses black in that sense ignorant proves two things — your own ignorance and your own desire to start a battle over a nonissue.

James L. Harrison

Sophomore

Computer engineering