He “might’ve been black”

Political correctness is getting really confusing these days. I was watching the local news this morning as they broke in with a late breaking news story. “Man shot and killed. Police don’t have a description of the suspect yet, but they say he might’ve been black.”…um…ok. Might he also have been white?…or possibly a beigy taupe?…I suppose we’ll never know. Allegedly, he/she, Christian/Jewish, white/black, bi-racial, of Middle Eastern decent, shot and killed a man. We know he might’ve done it because the said man is lying in the street.

It’s really hard to keep up with what we are supposed to refer to people as. We’re pretty sure the “N” word is still off limits though…well…unless you are a gangsta rapper or someone’s brotha! Personally I like African American people. They tend to be far cooler than I am. I’m okay with that. (Did you notice I called them “African American”? That was so 2002! “Black” is fine again I hear…unless you are on a local news channel, in which case black is only fine if you are referring to the inner kindness of someone who “might’ve killed a man!”) I have a friend who referred to herself as “brown” one day. I suppose it makes sense. I’m sort of a “cream” myself.

Oh well…I suppose my point is that people don’t need to identify each other with a cultural description all the time. I’m certain that most of us have other identifying characteristics that won’t offend everyone in the room when using them to describe ourselves. Personally, I prefer it when people say, “you know Calia. She’s that bouncy girl with the big personality!…and when they describe me to a sketch artist, the picture comes back as nothing but teeth with a callout bubble over them with the words “Happy Day!”