alanabit,

thanks so much for posting that additional information. I recognize that remembering that what happened to Betty isn't an abstraction for you. But maybe doing so and posting about it has helped others work through and/or better understand some of their attitudes and perceptions about race.

It certainly has helped me understand that "the blacks" can refer to people other than Black Americans, particularly if "the blacks" is used by non-American people.

And it occurs to me that we haven't even talked about the differences between "Colored people" in the USA; "Coloured people" in the nation of South Africa, and "people of color" as currently used in the USA...