>"Black used to be OK"?

It isn't? Please don't tell me that I have start calling my Leicester-born and bred friend "African-American" - that way lies madness. In another forum, an African-American uses that term not only to describe herself, but to describe people of African ethnicity from all over the world - aaaargh!

FWIW, even though I would never use the word Oriental to describe a person, I understand what Vernon was trying to say.