Like my friend BillD, I try to use terms that serve a REAL purpose... and to be as thinkingly intentional as I can be.

For instance, if one is talking about color-based discrimination, I choose to speak in terms of "people of color" because I may or may not be discussing people with African heritage-- I might be talking about the whole spectrum of racism aimed at people of Asian or Hispanic heritage. What's being discussed there is the reaction to people with skin darker than whoever is aiming the reaction, not other aspects like culture, place of origin, etc. So using the more "politically correct" term in that instance "African American" would be inaccurate.

Similarly, if talking specifically about times when Black Pride was a huge part of the US cultural landscape, I will use the term "black" or "Black," the former being a generic adjective and the latter a proper name, depending on the situation.

When I am talking about culture springing from African roots, I usually choose the term "African." And so forth.

Each of these words and phrases evokes certain truths, and touches upon one or more painful aspects of the American experience in all its grandeur and ugliness; there is always baggage attached because, in my experience, we are such an unhealed people.

What I purposely don't do is use terms that are removed from their accuracy in an effort not to offend, just for the sake of not disturbing a bunch of white/European-American-middle-class-guilt-ridden nicey-nicey people who have never known someone of another culture, deeply, in their lives, and who merely wish to conforrm to another's sense of what's "OK."

I also don't apply today's sensibilities to words or phrases of another time used in ways I can't quite grasp, as if doing that can un-do wrongs that I know were done.

And finally, I don't expect friends and acquaintances "of color" to solve these problems for me by asking them to tell me how to communicate. I don't put them into the position of having to do my homework for me. I don't put them on the spot bty asking them to assume the role of spokesperson for a group I may perceive that they belong to-- any more than I appreciate being called upon in casual, unprepared conversation to speak for all clergy spouses when people are more interested in form than in substance. We are all responsible for educating ourselves. There's plenty of material around to learn from, and of course that includes what people choose to tell me (when they choose to tell me).

In the Spirituals permathread, I confront these issues any time I try to work on the project. I'm sure that I'm smarter and more sensitive on some days than on others; I've revised a few things in there as time and understanding have progressed. But I do not edit a published work when I quote it, to make negro into Negro, to make Black into African American, and so forth.

When I arrange a song for my band, of COURSE I edit, adapt, vernacularize dialect, and so forth, for the way the song will be used and the people with whom we will use it.

~Susan