"Colored">"Negro"> Black">"African American">"Black"?

Let me start by saying I know this may be a touchy subject, and forgive me if I come off as being ignorant…

I also know there have been similar questions discussed, but what I’m asking is what term is appropriate to you, where you live?

Am I correct that it’s now openly accepted to call black people “black”? (How do you like that, I just did, heh.) To me, the term “African American” now seems a bit dated, overly politically correct, and cumbersome. But I am also well-aware it is not up to me, and I want to use a term that will not offend.

I can partially answer my own question and say that the term “black” is now again, a-ok. (At least among my friends—black and white—in this urban US city). I still feel I hesitate a bit, though, when I’m around someone “of color” I may have just met, and the situation may call for it—which is rare (i.e., at a party, referring to a black friend across the room, trying to differentiate someone from a crowd…

EEeeerrrrrrrrr (needle scratches as its ripped of the record)

Hold on.

I now realize that there are so many questions within the first question. I was going to write how it “does my head in” when people pussyfoot around obvious distinct characteristics (again, at a party: “Is that your friend over there, with the brown curly hair and the blue t-shirt?” Noooo, my friend is that black guy right there—the only one in a crowd of white guys… just as it wouldn’t bother me if someone referred to me as the “white guy” in a crowd on non-whites). The questions that arise from this thinking complicate things:

- If one is truly “color blind”, why would—or should—the color of someone’s skin be used to describe them? and, conversely,

- If one is truly “color blind”, why couldn’t you use the color of someone’s skin to describe them?

This last question probably requires everyone to walk away from some cultural baggage, and—I’m hoping—which is where we’re headed with the trend to re-embrace the term “Black”

yours truly,

this average white guy.

(sorry for the ramble)