Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm white and being referred to as "the man," is offensive. Blacks want to be treated equally, then stop asking to be treated special.

"blacks", really? Also, I doubt anyone refers to you as "the man" literally or ironically.

*accurately

sorry for grammar issue-iphone

As a hispanic female who has dealt with racism and the majority of my friends being ethically diverse. I would suggest if you correct her to teach her to identify people by name, gender or other characteristics rather then saying "African American" or "black". Those terms do not actually describe a person because many hispanic people are very dark skin and not every "black" person is of african decent. If racial equality is to happen than we need to stop labeling people by their skin color.

I do not find any of those terms you suggested inappropriate but if your going to correct someone why not teach them a nonracial way. If your born here or have a citizenship than you are American... not african american, not irish american, not mexican/cuban american.

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm white and being referred to as "the man," is offensive. Blacks want to be treated equally, then stop asking to be treated special.

You clearly don't understand the term. The man is in reference to the establishment, not necessarily white people, and white people use the term as well. Also, asking someone to refrain from using an offensive term is not asking for special treatment, its asking for the same level of respect given to you from birth by right of your skin color.

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm white and being referred to as "the man," is offensive. Blacks want to be treated equally, then stop asking to be treated special.

Please do shut up. "The man", is not anywhere close to racially exclusive. It is mostly a "hippie" term.

Well, I'm white and being referred to as "the man," is offensive. Blacks want to be treated equally, then stop asking to be treated special.

I would want to know that I were saying it wrong. Definitely let her know in a sweet, nonjudgmental way!

Anonymous wrote:Coloured in South Africa refers to mixed race people, and isn't at all derogatory. Was she referring to mixed race characters?

She might have a perfectly reasonable reason for saying it. The fact remains, some people here would take great offense to a white woman throwing the word around in their presence. OP can say something or not, but eventually someone will and they might not beso nice about it. South Africa is also about 20/30 years behind when it comes to the civil rights issue. Racism is still very present to an extent we generally don't see here, and use of the word colored is perfectly acceptable and not the derogatory term, but in our country many black people would not appreciate it. Why use the label at all? How about "I like [character's name] from such and such show". I'd be a little put off by anyone who could only identify the character they claim to love by the color of their skin. Either you're not very observant or you see him as little more than "the black guy".

Coloured in South Africa refers to mixed race people, and isn't at all derogatory. Was she referring to mixed race characters?

Anonymous wrote:Is it REALLY that bad? I think Colored is fine. People are to sensitive.. What country do you reside in?

Is it really that bad? If you called me 'colored' to my face, you'd find out how bad it really is. WTF are you? I'll bet I could come up with some term for you that I could say that you're "to [SIC] sensitive" about.

I think you can say something kindly and once.

When I used to teach film classes, one of the things that was always difficult for students (college) was that when we saw foreign films (and sometimes even US films), we couldn't use the term African-American because the actor wasn't American. So keep in mind that's probably a new term to someone from another country.