Black or African American

This is actually a very touchy situation. In reading that article, I am suprised to see that black people would prefer to be called black instead of african american. But just because an article says that most if not all people in a certain group says they'd like to be labeled a certain way, it doesn't mean that you can assume this in conversations with them. I've had the conversation several times regarding how to identify black people.

For instance, I have a friend who is a waiter and he told me about a situation that didn't go over so well. He was training a new waiter one day and asked him to take some food item to a table. The person in training said, "Who do you want me to take this to?" My friend responded, "The black guy at that table over there." The person in training acted very offended by that statement and confronted my friend about it. From that point on, he made it a point to be sure to identify a person by their clothing or what they were eating.

Whatever the case is, you simply cannot please an entire group of people. Some are very concerned about their label while others just don't care and would rather just be considered just like everybody else. I personally don't know how to approach this situation. I think I still hear in commercials the term 'african american.' All in all, labels are ridiculous and have only caused problems.