Re: They could have used the "He said Jehova" excuse instead
"using all sorts of circumlocutions to avoid saying "the black guy" "
I was picking up a friend from LAX, and my host gave me a ride. She asked what he looked like, and I said (without thinking) "he's a big black fella".
She corrected me, saying that he was a "large African American fella".
I pointed out that his grandparents had come to the UK from Trinidad, so he was neither African nor American, but he was most definitely black.
She really couldn't wrap her head around that you couldn't just substitute black and African-American.
Mind you, that was pretty minor compared to trying to buy a pack of smokes with a hangover. The gay chap at the bodega thought I was being deliberately offensive....
Biting the hand that feeds IT
