kenbuzz

Not directly, no. I get confused when people and the PC Cops co-opt perfectly good english words to twist them to add completely unrelated meaning, just to not offend folks. For example, the phrase "African-American" has come to replace "black" or "Negro" in common parlance, though technically, any American either from or with direct generational ties to the continent of Africa are more correct to use that phrase. A white boy whose parent emigrated to Kansas from South Africa before he was born could more correclty call himself "African American" than most inner-city black youth, though he'd be branded a racist if he did so.

I was in Quebec City on vacation several years ago. My g/f noted that there weren't as many "African Americans" there per capita as there were back in the Greater DC area where she was from. I noted that in fact, there were probably very many fewer African Americans than she saw -- since nearly all of the black folks there were more than likely Canadian, not American.

Words have meaning. Using perfectly good words or phrases that have their own intrinsic meaning to provide a "feel good" phrase to specific sets of other folks merely out of some sense of Political Correctness only serves to make already difficult communication that much harder. The phrase "Afro-American", to me, is confusing. Not because I'm not in step with common parlance, but because it has it's own meaning that seems to run contrary to the more-and-more commonly accepted, but contradictory, meaning.

That, and I wanted to tweak the original author. "Black" would probably have been a better term to use, since that's what the author clearly meant.

Josh H

I don't think he clearly meant that. I think he was trying to imply he was excluding "black" hispanics, like Sosa and Tejada on the O's.

KitchenSink

Does Albert Belle still count? Are they still paying him?

Josh H

No, Belle is finally off the books for them.

kenbuzz

Heh, well, it seems to me that if we're arguing about what he "clearly meant", then it's fairly obvious that his wording wasn't exactly clear.

Confusing the matter by introducting nationality and nationality of origin (assuming he wasn't talking about hair styles) doesn't help. If one means to identify folks by their race and nationality, do so. In this particular case, if your interpretation is correct, perhaps "Black American" would have been the proper phrase to use, as it's pretty unambiguous and works perfectly fine IMO.

Brian Gentz

Cubs have 2, Corey Patterson and Derek Lee (he'll be 30 this summer)