I bet Melissa Theuriau wouldn't have made that journalistic error. In fact, why not put up another post with her picture as proof of this theory.

You know what's really funny? I had to think a minute to work out what's wrong with that description. I started with the working hypothesis that they were North Africans, while African Americans are usually sub-Saharan.

But, of course, nobody's putting my wet brain stream of consciousness on the air.

I did too. I focused on the African part (partly true) rather than the American part (not true).

I have heard a person refer to Europeans of dark complexion as African-American once before, and it made me laugh out loud. The woman responded by asking me what she was supposed to call them if not that.

Political correctness is nothing but Newspeak, and reduces the need to think dramatically.

Katrina refugees?

I was thinking the same thing Dave. French Quarter-Americans. At least it has french in the name.

The woman responded by asking me what she was supposed to call them if not that.

IRAQIAN'S?????

lets get 2 teh real problme,. aec, u dont care about iraqian's!

Okay, Sortelli, that made me laugh.

Is there some place you can download that cool moonbat font, or did you just type that with your toes?

Actually, it's really easy to get that moonbat effect for yourself. Go buy an old-fashioned mercury thermometer, crack it in half, and take a sip. Refreshing and delicious!

I had to write a lot of dialogue in internet idiotese back in the day. My general rule is to switch the lats tow lettres of a word.

But man, I wish I could say that "iraqian" line was made up. *sigh*

Oh, I saw the "Iraqian" guy yesterday. Nope, you can't make stuff like that up. IIRC, he really did respond by asking what he was supposed to call them, if not that.

I think we need terms to distinguish between good and bad Iraqians. The former can be Iraqtaculars, the latter Iraqickies.

I'm trying to remember a story I heard -- someone at some liberal rag (New York Times? Not sure.) was editing an article that referred to black people in Europe or Asia, hundreds of years ago, and changed the reference to "African-Americans". The original author objected to the change, pointing out that there was no America, per se, at that point, and these folks didn't live there anyway, but the editor pointed to the style book and insisted the text had to change, or the article would be killed.... PC run amok.

Sounds like the New York Times. They follow their in-house style guide so obsessively that if an article mentioned the singer Meat Loaf, he was invariably called "Mr. Loaf."

You folks are all missing the obvious. The Youths of Undetermined Ethnic Extraction are burning cars for one reason, and one reason only.

They want to know:

Who won the poetry contest! And who are the honorable mentions!

Because, many Youths of Undetermined Ethnic Extraction were deeply moved by the Ode to Odgen Nash.

Lennox Lewis has been asked about his African-American heritage many times. In one exchange, he corrected the interviewer with a simple "I'm British," and the interviewer was totally confused - he couldn't tell what the comment was in reference to.

In the book Paved With Good Intentions by Jared Taylor, (footnote on p. 218) he quotes a WSJ story ("American, Not African-American", by Deborah Wright, 10/30/1990): "Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress, must have been amused when a befuddled reportere referred to him during a trip to New York as an 'African American'".