Reid used the word "Negro." It's out of date, but is it now offensive? Is it the new "N" word? Just a blink of an eye ago, "black" was the preferred locution. Jesse Jackson decided it should be "African-American" and the country went along. But the slower adopters (even your humble columnist, who prefers less orotund expressions) sometimes still say "black." How long until that becomes a sin?
I still say Black and sometimes Negro. Like she says, 'is this the new N word'? And who decides, Jesse Jackass? Over my old white patoot.
And not to get technical, but I will anyway :-) Barry Obama isn't an "African American". As we found when Teresssssssa Heinz-Kerry said she was one, we were told that an "African American" must come from slave stock. So Barry falls into that category with Jamaicans and new immigrant bombers from Yemen (/s), they're 'Black', or Negroes, but NOT African-American. And if anyone recalls besides me, before Jesse deemed Blacks be called 'African-American', the 'correct term' was 'Afro-American', which Jesse Jackass ALSO coined.
And maybe someone should call the NAACP and tell them that 'Colored People' is racist and they need to change their name.
Jesse Jackson may be responsible for a lot of things but not for coining the word Afro-American.
FYI:
August 13
*On this date in 1892, the first issue of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper hit the streets. This black owned and operated newspaper has crusaded for racial equality and economic advancement for African- Americans for more than a century.
John Henry Murphy Sr., a former slave, started the paper when he merged his church publication, The Sunday School Helper with two other church publications, The Ledger and The Afro-American. By 1922, Murphy moved the newspaper from a one-page weekly church publication into the most widely circulated black paper along the Atlantic coast.