This reminds me of a television interview I saw many years ago. A reporter from one of the major US television networks (I forget which one) was interviewing black British athlete Kriss Akabusi after being a member of the 400 metres relay team that took the gold medal at the 1991 Athletics World Championships.
The interviewer started off with:-
"So, Kriss, what does this mean to you as an African-American?"
"I'm not American, I'm British"
"Yes, but as a British African-American ..."
"I'm not African. I'm not American. I'm British."
This went on for some time before the reporter got so flustered that she gave up and went to interview someone else. I guess more than anything else it demonstrates the potential absurdity of political correctness - this reporter was so tied-up with the idea that the "correct" term for someone of afro-caribbean ancestry was African-American and not Black that she couldn't cope with the fact that many black people are neither African nor American.
reply
share
liscarkat (16592)
4 years ago
Proves you don't have to be intelligent to be a network tv reporter.
reply
share
nufsaid16 (631)
2 years ago
No, the reporter was simply trying to be respectful, and not realizing that the term "African-American" is primarily an American term, and that a black British person wouldn't relate to it. What some of you white people call "political correctness"--and what you don't understand--is simply someone trying to be respectful of what people of color want to call themselves. That's all----it's not that big of a deal. The reporter simply made a mistake---that didn't make him or her "dumb".
reply
share