> Something Howard posted the other day reminded me of my beef with the ridiculous, not to mention inaccurate, lengths to which political correctness has gone.
>
> **Warning: Rant follows**
>
> For example, we all know that the "proper" term for someone with black skin is African-American. This is patently absurd. Most black people who live in America were born here and have never been within a thousand miles of Africa. On the other hand, Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of John Kerry, is an African-American who happens to be Caucasian. She was born in Mozambique. For another example, take Al Sharpton. His skin is black, but he is a Native American, because he was born in New York.
>
> Another piece of obnoxious illogic is taking person A and calling him a "native" but not calling person B a native just because A's ancestors have been living in the area a lot longer than B's ancestors.
>
> If the illogic wins, I guess I'll have to start calling myself a German-Scotch-Irish-Dutch-English-Native American-American.
>
> A more pernicious practice, in my opinion, is the current habit of going to great lengths to mention a person's skin color when praising any member of a minority for achieving greatness. To some extent, this is unavoidable, especially when talking about civil rights pioneers such as Rosa Parks. However--a typical example that's written by a liberal would say something like, "He was one of the greatest African-American physicians." Skin color has NOTHING to do with whether somebody is a good doctor, but the liberals insist on mentioning it anyway.
>
> And finally, tomorrow is Columbus Day. The PC police ridicule us for observing this holiday. They say that Columbus was a homicidal fanatic, and besides he didn't discover anything anyway. Admittedly, it's true that he technically didn't discover North America--even from Europe, the Vikings got here first, and of course the "natives" got here even sooner. HOWEVER--Columbus deserves the credit because nobody from the other groups bothered to tell anyone else about their find. The "natives" certainly >didn't cross the Atlantic--Columbus did.

I think it's wrong to stereotype people before you even know them. But it happens. My son-in-law has a large decal of the American Flag on the back of his car. I've never asked him why, but he lives in a large southern city and I think some people mistake him for Middle Eastern. He is actually from South America, but on the freeway, some bigot might not notice the difference.

His son, my grandson, is seven and except for slightly lighter hair that he got from his blonde mother, he looks very Hispanic. He came home from school when he was in the first grade and asked his mother why his skin was different from the other kids. It seems someone, an older child, said, "We don't play with people of your color." She must have learned that at home.

To me, he looks like a kid with a beautiful golden tan, except that it stays all winter.

He was born in Georgia so he is a Native American. Either that, or he is a Peruvian, English, German, Scotch-Irish, American Indian, American. And his grandfather thinks he is smart, athletic, and handsome.
Howard