I did a quick search for writing style guides, and this is what I found:

blacks—The term "blacks" is accepted according to the Associated Press Stylebook. "African-American" is acceptable when referring to people of African descent.

(Located here.

That's what my guess would've been--"African-American" technically refers to Americans with African ancestry, not all blacks.
 

They have blow out sales for Labor Day. And President's Day. And Memorial Day.
 

Retailers will find ANY excuse to run a "sale" and get people in when the masses are not working. And the "black" thing? Well, I have found it actually can vary according to where you live and we all know it changes over time. I prefer not to use any of them and agree with Morgan Freeman (one of my idols) that it perpetuates racism.
Peace...............
 

I agree that you shouldn't refer to someone's race every single time you talk to or about them, ie "this is my daughter's little black friend Suzy," because that is unnecessary and rather stupid, and would make me wonder if you were racist; but I do think there are times when you need to know about a person's race.

For instance, you can't hardly tell the story of Dr. King without telling people that he was black, and that in this country at the time (and still) people who are black (thanks Susan for the information on black vs African America) aren't treated equally and that's why he struggled and was killed. To remove that part of the equation would be to make the story not make sense.

Also, the argument could me made that, assiduously avoiding any mention of a person's race, even when it makes sense to do so, is another form of racism. Race is not broccoli between the teeth, ie something to be embarrassed about. I think that many people, regardless of what race they are, are proud of their family and their heritage.

I think this just seems weird here in America because this information is used in weird ways. I wish we could be more open and embracing of everyone's culture and background, then it wouldn't be such a scary thing to talk about.
 

You know, I find the whole issue to be confusing. When I describe someone I tend to want to use whatever attributes I observe...be they mental, physical, spiritual, etc. And I never know what's acceptable. This is, of course, futher complicated by the random fact that I happen to be caucasian.
Never mind that one side of my family was poor-ass Irish dirt farmers in Oklahoma and the other side fled Germany in the 30s. I'm still expected to carry my face with guilt. I, honestly, don't think that that is what civil rights was all about.
 

hello, sister-in-law. i figured i should finally say hi. :)

i personally think the term "african american" should only be used in reference to those who are actually FROM africa. when i was in highschool, a kid --who was white, and from south africa-- won a scholarship intended for "african americans", but they didn't want to give it to him once they found out he was white. he didn't understand, because he was FROM africa. (i think they did give it to him in the end).

do they call it "lee/jackson/king day where you are? that was quite a shock when i moved south of the mason dixon line... nothing like remembering a civil rights pioneer by combining his birthday with a confederate general's.

and yes, in this land of capitalism, there is apparently no better way of honoring the dead than to hold a massive sale.

--kate
 

Like Veterans Day and Memorial Day sales--totally inappropriate. This should be a day to spread goodwill, peace, harmony, and acceptance.
 

The African-American thing can get way out of hand - I heard that somewhere (don't know what media source) Tuvok (the Vulcan on Voyager) was described as an "African-American Vulcan!"

MLKJ Day is not observed over here, so I'm a bit out of the loop as to how folks back home are observing it. Stands to reason that there'll be a football game designated for the day at some point.... meanwhile I suppose people are out shopping or hunting (or whatever)! Do people actually organize acts of community service, etc? Would be neat if they did.
 

While I was at home for Christmas and out to dinner with some family of mine, one of my relatives was telling a story about a coworker and referred to them as black. They then paused and looked to me, the ONLY Democrat in the entire family, and apparently because that makes me the local expert on politically correct speech, asked, "Actually, is that acceptable these days? Or do we have to say African-American? I can never tell."

I thought for half a second about the country club they belong to and responded, "It's kind of contextual, and I think one of the biggest factors is whether or not you actually have any black friends. I can say black, but you'd better say African-American."

As for whether or not we should all pretend there is no reason to ever refer to someone's ethnicity, well, I think it's still useful and necessary when speaking in the aggregate. I probably wouldn't refer to an individual person by singling them out by race, but it is pretty informative for my lobbying purposes to point out that blacks are 7 times more likely to die by gun violence than whites.

Hope I made sense. Randomly found your blog b/c somehow you ended up as a referrer on our Sitemeter -- probably someone hit the "Next Blog" button.