Army axes word ‘negro’ from policy guidelines

The U.S. Army on Friday axed a policy that allowed black service members to be called ‘Negro’ two days after CNN reported on the guideline.

The report found that the Army Command Policy, an overarching book of regulations, included a policy that approves the word “Negro” to describe “a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.” An Army spokesman said, at the time, the racial definitions in the document are “outdated” and would be updated soon.

{mosads}“The U.S. Army fully recognized, and promptly acted, to remove outdated language in Army Regulation 600-20 as soon as it was brought to our attention,” an Army spokesman said in a statement to CNN. “We apologize to anyone we offended.”

Now the only acceptable terms are “Black” and “African American.”

While the term has long been considered offensive and outdated in everyday parlance, the U.S. Census Bureau only decided to stop using it on surveys last year.