Grew up in the inner city, never heard any blacks, hispanics, etc talk about preferring to be called “Afro American” and so on. BTW, last time I checked, Africa is a continent. So shouldn’t all whites be referred to as Euro-Americans? I am a Native American. I was born here, as were my parents. My grandparents were Italian-American. My wife is also Native American, as are her parents, grandaparents, greatgranparents and so on back to that group in 1620. THAT portion of her family was British-American.

IMHO, race mongers of all colors are ignoring the message of MLK. Every time we use these labels concerning anyone, we are referencing the color of his skin.

The reasons for this are many, including the Blame America First group, rainbow hued as is our country.

Yes, slavery is terrible, it continues to this day in the Middle East and other regions of the world. It was terrible in the US, as well, but the slaves were sold by slavemasters in Africa.

Consider this:
IF there was never a slave brought to this country, would there have been a George Washington Carver? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr? Clarence Thomas? Michael Jordan? I.M. Pei? Yes, slavery existed in the west, as well. They just don’t have Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

It’s time to live the dream of MLK.

My rant on this subject is in some libraries; it’s called THE INARTICULATE SOCIETY, and in a review of it the Washington Post tried to slime me by calling me a cultural conservative. But
we’ra all cultural conservatives if we care about each other’s feelings enough to address each other properly.

Having spent some time in Australia and a lot of time in Asia, I would say that the most accepted term is “Aboriginal People”, and to a lesser extent “Aboriginals”. “Aborigines” is clearly not PC these days, the term that was the most common in years gone by. But since that term is now associated with some of the attitudes that may have been common in those years, it is not considered polite.

There are some distinctly un-PC names for the natives of the Australian continent (even using the term native as I did in this sentence is considered sketchy), but I don’t think anyone is interested in them, least of all me.

But things change quickly (as Terry notes), so please don’t consider me the final arbiter on this subject.

Thanks for the comment. You can’t make this stuff up.

As you know, I lived in Montana for six years before I worked with you in Millerton. In all those years, I never heard a “Native American” refer to him or herself that way. They called themselves Indians or, more often, referred to themselves by the name of their tribe: Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, etc. For that reason, I stopped being PC and went back to calling them Indians.
One more thing: The NCAA is on a crusade to ban mascots and team nicknames that they have deemed offensive to “Native Americans.” Here are the nicknames for the schools on the reservations: Plenty Coups Warriors, St. Labre Chiefs, Lame Deer Braves and the Lodge Grass Indians. If these mascots and nicknames are so offensive, why are these “Native American” schools using them? (And quite proudly and fiercely, I might add.)
Imagine if the Montana high school association instituted the same policy as the NCAA and outlawed such mascots. You would have a group of middle-aged white guys telling “Native American” schools that they can’t use these mascots because it’s offensive to … “Native Americans”! Oh, the irony!

That’s a very interesting story about the term “bushman.” I had never considered it pejorative, but of course I am not clued in to southern Africa.

Does anyone know what term is now used for the original inhabitants of Australia? Is it still aborigines? Indigenous peoples? Native Australians? I would be interested to find out.

Signed, a Native American (of no tribal descent)

And I guess you would agree that the claim that there are 36 million people in the US going to bed hungry every night is a bit of an exaggeration. It may feel good to make those kinds of claims, but it makes for a lousy responses to real problems when politicians and fools make outlandish claims for the sake of their ulterior motives (like getting elected and projecting their moral vanity).

As to where I’ve been in my life, Fred, trust me, I’ve been to more places both here in the US and around the world than anyone you know personally. Guaranteed. I am one traveling fool.

I don’t think you’ve spent much time in, oh, say, New York City, have you, let alone East St. Louis, the South Side of Chicago, or Appalachia. If you have, I guess you’ve averted your eyes from the hungry, homeless people on the street, in the subways, etc.

You might even want to shimmy over to one of the nw Corner’s food banks.

For your enlightenment: Many credible, mainstream scientific studies have linked obesity to poverty. The reason? The less income people have, the hungrier they are, and the more they stock up on easy-to-get, cheap, quick-filling, non-nutritious processed foods. Hence, obesity.

Oh, go ahead, screw with me because I don’t have time to go find a citation for you. You’ll just have to take my socialist word for it.