This is a great topic. I thought calling a black person African American was so much more respectful. My take on it was that black people's ancestors were African until I read this thread.

I was born is '68. My parents were born in the mid 40's. We always called Native Americans "Indians", but now we can't because people assume we're referring to East Indians. My parents and grandparents referred to black people as Negros (I've never called a black person a nigger. I hate that!) and my dad sometimes called them "colored". We meant no disrespect. That's just how we talked among ourselves.

There were no black people in the school I went to. From kindergarten through 12th grade, we had 100 students, give or take. The town I grew up in had a population of 1200 people tops.

I've always treated black people, and all races, as people. That's what we all are. My parents taught me that. I'm white and it doesn't bother me to be called white, Caucasian, honky, cracker, and whatever other terms there are. I have no shame. However, I never ask anyone, "What race are you?" because it's not important to me.

My son is half Hispanic, but he looks more like a "Native American" or what I'd prefer to call an Indian. If I'm referring to an East Indian, I'll specify that. A Mexican is a mixture of Spaniard and Indian. When I filled out forms for him, I had to put Caucasian/Hispanic. I don't understand why our race has to be listed on any form unless that is a way of showing respect to different races. So many people are offended today that we have to be politically correct. Personally, I see no reason to differentiate.

My ancestors were supposedly Irish and Scottish road clans on my mother's side. My dad doesn't know who his biological father is and doesn't want to know. I was born in America.

I used to call Asians "Oriental". I'm careful about that now.

I've never said any of this to a person of a different race.

My mother and I had an argument about a guy from Austria being German. She said he's from Austria and I said he's actually German. I got in trouble for that when I was a kid.

Then there's the matter of calling anyone from Wales, Scotland, and England "British". I offended a man a few months ago with that. Now I just refer to those countries as the UK.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, Kristy. I'm just confused about what's proper. I don't like my dad and brothers to use derogatory terms in the presence of my son and I especially hated it when he was growing up. My granddad made me so mad talking about "niggers" while my son was there! I wanted him to grow up respecting everyone.

I'll just keep my thoughts to myself in the presence of someone from another ethnicity or country.