Politically Correctness or Correct Politicallness?

As I ate lunch with two of my buddies yesterday, we started talking about the problem of politically correctness. Our main conversation centered on the fact that no matter what people call different "races" or ethnicities, there will always be someone or a group of people that disagree with the title or find it offensive.

I felt comfortable enough with my friends to ask them what they preferred to be known as. My first friend strongly declared that he hated being called "African-American" because he had no idea if his family was even from Africa. He liked the term "Black" because it was a larger, more global term that he could align himself with. However, my other friend promptly said that he didn't care if people called him African American or Black as long as their motives aren't trying to offend him. 

I think it's interesting to note that where my first friend didn't know his heritage and found the term African-American offensive, my second friend knew his heritage (distantly from Antigua) and he didn't mind being called anything. It was almost like my first friend was being protective of his anonymity making sure that no one classified him under a specific "genre" of Blacks. To him it seemed like Black was a more fitting term because it was the larger umbrella that he could fall under and still have an identity.

We also had a really great discussion about the aftermath of the civil rights movement and where our country has been headed and what the next step was. I confessed that I felt something similar to White Guilt and that I didn't know how I could rectify the past..... my friends were too nice to me and explained that there wasn't really anything I could do except continue being a good person and that change starts small and also takes time. (It sounds like I'm making myself sound like an awesome person, but really my friends are too good for me).

It was really nice talking to them and I'm very grateful that they didn't laugh at me with all my sillY questions. If anyone actually reads this blog, I recommend breaking any surface level conversations with friends of different ethnicities and really talk about life. You'll be surprised at what you discover.