Re: CHAT: PC terminology

Nik Taylor wrote:
> > There is however a greater rationale for the adoption of the term "African-
> > American". After several hundred years of being belittled and considered of no
> > account whatsoever many "Black" Americans felt that it was time to avoid being
> > identified by skin color and instead (as other Americans do) use a term that
> > indicates place and/or ethnicity of origin.
>
> But Black is a race.  It's a rational counterpart to "White", IMHO.  And
> don't get me started on "Caucasian".  :-)  Most "Caucasians" have no
> ancestors from the Caucasus mountains.  Actually, perhaps the best terms
> would be something like Negro and Honkey, since those are non-derogatory
> terms that have no connection (in English) with color.  Black and White
> are problematic because of the many other associations of those colors
> (e.g., white=good, black=evil).
Except that the theory of biological race (as opposed to sociological)
has been discounted. On the subject of "caucasian," I read a few years
ago in Discover magazine that the man who came up with the names of
races such as "caucasian," "negroid," and "mongoloid" called whites
"caucasian" because he thought the people of the Caucasus were the
most beautiful in the world, thus a fitting label for whites.