Acceptable terms for describing black people in California
Today, our team was bought a drink or two by our company, so I was talking with an Afroamerican colleague and was trying to describe him that I had seen San Francisco in San Andreas GTA game, but he couldn't understand about what version of the game I was talking about, so I was trying to describe him the main player, which is a black person.
In my attempt, I said black guy, but as soon as I started the phrase I decreased the volume of my voice and I actually told that only to the 3rd guy in our conversation and I do not know if the Afroamerican person really heard me or even if he reacted, because I looked intentionally the other guy, since I felt I was telling something bad.
Tonight, some people stole our phone, and they happened to be black, and when I finally found a police officer, I was trying to describe him the scene and in my rush I said "..the black guy grabbed the phone.." and the police officer was also black. So did I say something offensive? I only that afterwards...
So, is the phrase "black guy" accepted for a tourist like me (it's freaking obvious I am one)?
Best Answer
I assume that African-American (or Afroamerican as you wrote) implies that the person is an American with African origin. Hence you could only use that term if you are sure about the person's nationality.
Personally, I propose to avoid adding a nationality to the person's appearance origin. E.g. a tourist, a business traveller or a colleague with a green card just joining your American company site could have African origin but isn't American. He could be a Swede, French or German.
As already proposed, it is rather clever to mention the skin color only as last alternative if there is nothing else to distinguish a person from another. In that case, you should enunciate respectful and polite.
It is also noteworthy that an acceptable term changes over time as well as location. My mother once used the N-Word and I was shocked to hear that. It turned out that she learned it in her youth where it wasn't a bad word and the affected people used the term for them self, too. Getting her rid of this habit is a really worrying for me! Who knows what your children will think about you if say 'black' in 20 years.
Pictures about "Acceptable terms for describing black people in California"
African American or black—what's the right term to use?
More answers regarding acceptable terms for describing black people in California
Answer 2
'African-American' is the most appropriate especially in a formal setting.You would do better to use an 'african american male' than just a 'black man'. Informally, You can use 'Black' as well there is no problem with that, just keep in mind there is a way of pronouncing the word 'black'(sounds a bit like 'bulllaackk') that can sound quite antagonistic toward African-Americans just because of the fact when antagonizers refer to 'black' people they tend to pronounce it in that way.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Ivan Samkov, Vera Azevedo, Kyle Loftus, Joshua Mcknight