Thanks for all of the input. I'm very glad that this word remains socially unacceptable.

I also have a problem with white and black being used as racial designators. In the first place, they are inaccurate. These words designate colors, and nobody is white or black. Try putting your hand on a clean piece of paper or drawing on it with black ink. In the second place, "white" seems to have a connotation of pure, virginal, clean (e.g., 'white as the driven snow') and therefore somehow better than other colors...which is, as we all know, so much BS.

I don't really have a good alternative, assuming that racial designators are necessary for some stupid reason. "African-American" really only applies to Americans (US citizens) of African descent and (Azizi, correct me if I'm wrong) primarily to those who are descended from slaves. What does one call a Nigerian national? Or a Nigerian national who emigrates to the US? Or the child of that person and a "white" American?

And, to carry my personal diatribe against racial designators one step further, how about "Hispanic"? A person who originates from a Spanish-speaking country, regardless of race. We (in the US) would usually describe a Hispanic as being shorter than average and having a medium-brown complexion, brown/black eyes and black hair. Actually, we are basically referring to Mestizo Mexicans. Hell, my 6'2" blond, blue-eyed son-in-law from Panama (who speaks only Spanish) is Hispanic!

IMHO, we can never have true equality (or maybe I mean discrimination based only upon merit) until we realize that there is only one race, the human race, and everything else is superficial.