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Thursday, February 15, 2007
Politically Correct
This post is related to the last one, but I thought it would be a topic best discussed separately. Another one of our discussions after a gathering led to the area of racial terminology. The sister of the guy I mentioned in my last post was commenting about a quarrel among some of her fellow employees. Apparently, one gal that she works with is adament about being called African-American rather than black. A gal on a different floor is just as adament that she is from America and feels no ties to Africa and should be referred to as black. Apparently, this led to an all-out war of words where the people on the one floor were barely speaking to the people from the other. Her thoughts on the matter were that she considers herself black rather than African-American, but she doesn't feel overly emotional one way or another. Has anyone else had similar experiences? How important are labels? As long as they aren't rude or dehumanizing, should we get so militant on the topic? My friend's comment was that she didn't think this was what Dr. King had worked so hard for.

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posted by Unknown at 3:34 PM ¤ Permalink ¤


2 Comments:


  • At 2/16/2007 10:59:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

    I don't think that we need to be militant about this issue at all. I think that each woman can label herself as she chooses. Racial identity is a personal manner and shouldn't be forced on anyone else.

     

  • At 2/16/2007 04:12:00 PM, Blogger Unknown

    I agree, but how do we who are not members of a racial minority be sensitive to the preferences of those who are when opinions are so widely varied (and often heated).

     
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