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ImageSMART TALK

by Dr. Viva Palaver,
Staff Psychologist

COLORED PEOPLE: We at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired are very comfortable treating all races and ethnic groups. Linguistic impairment can afflict anyone, and we need to be able to communicate, or we're lost.

The shifting labels for races and ethnicities have caused anxiety among staff who wish to use inoffensive classifications in conversations with patients. Our records list such classifications only if it's germane to that patient's linguistic treatment. But what do we say or write? We use country of origin if we use anything. Skin tone usually turns out to be irrelevant.
I remember when saying colored people seemed acceptable; then it was Black; then Afro-American; now, African-American. Few have missed the irony of the pressure on the NAACP to be more inclusive and work for equality for other "people of color," such as Asian-Americans and Latinos. After all, look at those last two letters.

Note the terms African-American and Asian-American. Identifying by continent seems to have taken hold, even down here in Texas. Has anyone thought this through?

Continental identity means immigrants from Siberia or Israel are Asian-Americans. Miss Van Ruyker from South Africa and Mr. Mahmoud from Egypt will be African-Americans. Will those scientists from Venezuela be South-American-Americans?

Oh, no, some will say. We need to take color into account somehow. Hm. Really. How do you do that without admitting what this is all about: racial prejudice?

Most of the actual white people I know of are albinos, who can belong to any race. I ask my patients in counseling to think about that.

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