Urban--the New Code Word?

La Shawn Barber, in typicially brilliant fashion, reminds us that the word "urban" is now becoming a synonym for "black."

Some schools are taking pre-emptive action against Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations and private citizen lawsuits by removing blatantly illegal, racially exclusive language from scholarships and replacing it with the new descriptor, “urban.”

Urban, of course, is code for “black.” Northeastern University has opened its Ujima Scholars program to all students, but with a catch. The program will target students from an “urban background.”

This could lead to some questions later down the road, but at least the term is not blantantly racial. But then again, terminology is often spun to create definition far from the original.