I might suggest throwing it into a list of other adjectives: Perhaps they have several "black guys" working there? Offering more information might help narrow things down. It becomes a sort of stand-in for "the N-word" and ceases to be a useful descriptor for the individual. While "African-American" is still very common here, using "black" seems to be be the most recent "acceptable" term because it is in fact a descriptive neutral adjective & avoids the question of specific cultural backgrounds.Īs pointed out above, however, using "black" as a noun ("a black" or "the blacks") is disrespectful because it's just another way to group people together under a blanket stereotype. I imagine it's a similar situation in the UK. has somewhat fallen out of favor in recent years because there are also black Dominicans, Jamaicans, Brits, and actual Africans who got tired of being mislabeled. Coloured: This term was once common, but has fallen out of favour.Īs you pointed out "African-American" doesn't work for the UK, as the person is not American.Negro: This was once an acceptable term (more so in American English than British English), but has definitely fallen out of favour.Don't ever use it, even though black people sometimes jokingly use it with each other. Nigger: This is most definitely a racial slur.
In my opinion, trying to avoid the standard term black by using alternative terms such as dark or tanned would be worse. Black: This is blunt, but still safe to use.The term is generally interpreted to include only dark-skinned Africans and their descendants. I don't believe that there is a common British equivalent, though. African-American: This is the preferred polite term in the United States.Based on feedback, this is not recommended. Technically, it could also include non-black people who meet those criteria, though. African immigrant: If you know for a fact that the person was born in Africa and is now living in the UK, this is a safe term to use, as it frames the subject in terms of circumstances such as birthplace and residence, rather than race.I have asked a friend who isn't a native speaker either and she only confused me more by saying that I can't even call a blackboard that name any more but it has to called "whiteboard" in order not to offend black people.
Also I don't know what to add to the word "Afro" to make the equivalent of "black". Should I have said "dark"? "tanned"? or what exactly? I can't think of saying black American (I hear that lots on TV) as I live in the UK and nobody is American. I could tell that it was not appropriate or maybe he just didn't like the way I described his colleague. Some agency called me last week and I was trying to explain to the person over the phone that I had visited them a few days prior to his phone call and I had been served by one of his colleagues, he insisted on knowing the name of that person and I couldn't remember the name so I said it was the black guy.
Excuse my ignorance, I have lived in the UK for 8 years however I still don't know how to refer to a black person, as I came from a country where racism was not an issue.