Keiva asked: Can anyone confirm that US black-slang used to include the term HNIC, standing for "Head Negro in Charge"? ("negro" being here a more-polite version of the word actually used)

Indeed, this is true. There was a recent uproar when an article in Boston magazine about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was titled "Head Negro in Charge." Many objected to the obvious (to some) paraphrase of a very insulting and denigrating moniker.