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When writing history papers, should you change how groups are referred to to reflect modern sensibilities?

Asked by Aethelflaed (13752points) May 9th, 2012

I’m writing a history paper, and in it, the author of a primary source (Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex”) refers to black people as “Negroes”, quite possibly because it was written in 1949. So my question: when I am paraphrasing, referencing her work, do I change “negroes” to “black people”, or do I use the words the author used?

I’m partly asking as a larger social justice issue, but I definitely need an answer as to what would be considered right when I hand this paper into my professor.

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