Self-censorship

When I was young, I learned that negroes preferred to be called “black,” so that was the term I used. Many decades later, white people began using the term “African American.” I read a piece by Whoopie Goldberg who said, “African-American? I’m a black woman from the projects. I’ve visited Africa. I have nothing in common with those people or their culture! Call me black!” Living in the southwestern US, one gets used to Native Americans calling themselves ‘Indians.’ They are fully aware that it began as Columbus’s mistake. They either refer to themselves by their particular tribe or pueblo, or they use the term ‘Indian.’ I’ve only heard a few use the term “Native American” and only when they’re talking with Anglos. A Navajo Indian once asked me, “Do you know the origin of the term, “Native American?” I said, “No. I don’t.” He grinned and said, “Probably some white woman at a cocktail party!” When Canadians wanted an official term for their indigenous people, they went to those people and asked. (What a novel idea!) Canadian Indians deliberated over this and decided that they preferred the term, “First Nation.” It became their official designation. This makes sense to me. Political correctness, when established by others, is meaningless. 2018 NOTE: Lots of Quorans have misinterpreted my answer to this question so let me add this to clarify: If Canadian Indians prefer to be called “First Nation”, then First Nation it is. If my Pueblo Indian neighbors prefer the term, “Indian”, then Indian it is. Same with blacks or Mexicans or anyone. What I consider meaningless is when the “white lady at a cocktail party” decides that we should call Brazilians and Argentinians “Latin Americans”. It’s the same when Guatemalans, Cubans, Spanish, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans become “Hispanics”, and when Black Americans, whose families may have been in this country centuries before mine arrived here, become “African-American”. My family only emigrated to the US from Canada during the last century… yet no one ever calls us “Canadian-American”. Why? Because we’re white? We don’t need a separate classification? I will call you what YOU prefer, regardless of what people outside of your culture think you should be called.