Political correctness

[ffutures]

I need to describe a character's race - which of the following would currently be least offensive and/or most politically correct for an American audience:

Negro
Black
African-American

I've currently got it as African-American but it feels a little awkward, especially since the person I'm describing is actually a god. Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Comments

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

It's a polarizing topic. I know a number of Black people, and that's how they refer to themselves, not as African-Americans. I tend to find that there's a dichotomy between those that refer to themselves from the viewpoint of being American (Blacks), and the viewpoint of having ancestral history elsewhere (African-America).

Negro is way out, even if a lot of Blacks refer to each other as "Nigga", as the guys I know do.

You can always go with Non-White :D

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Ditto. "Black" is okay, "African-American" is a neutral as you're likely to get. "Negro" is right out (never mind the full name of the NAACP and the Negro College Fund.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks to both of you - I'll stick with African-American

[xxmagex.livejournal.com]

Black is generally acceptable, as is African-American. Course that is a mouthful. Negro? No, no one really uses that phrase anymore.

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

You could go with describing the person and leaving out race altogether. Like coffee-colored skin, dark curly hair, etc. That's what I would do, unless the person describing the god was American.

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

He isn't? Damned liberal media... *snerk*.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Does the character fulfill the "American" half of the phrase, though? I'm reminded of the time I was watching a Buffalo news station and they referred to Nelson Mandela as "the first African-American president of South Africa".

[armb.livejournal.com]

I've seen a transcript that went something like:
American interviewer: "As an African-American - actually I suppose I can't call you that - how do you describe yourself?"
Lenny Henry: "English".

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Question is, is he American or not? If not, I'd just go with Black. Anyone it bothers is too picky.

American?

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Is the god in question also an American?

I've seen CNN use the phrase "African-American" to describe people who, while certainly African, had never been to America. Struck me as a really silly example of parochialism...

Re: American?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's the thing that's bugging me about using that term - he's the sun god, so not exactly a local. Black might be better overall.

Re: American?

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Chocolate.

[bellatemple]

My main issue with calling someone "African-American" is that it really can't just refer to race . . . since I have several friends who are, technically, African-American and are about as white as you can get.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

The use of "black" in print never seems to cause much fuss from actual African-English (no idea about American) people. I know I'd let it pass, in appropriate contexts, at work.

(Though I've just discovered that the encyclopedia I'm updating has an article on Nelson Mandela which uses no words for race at all, carefully making nonsense of the whole thing. My over-fastidious predecessor at work again... time for a rewrite!)