Political Correctness Jumped the Shark Today
What in the world is a “Haitian-American”? I only ask because this article at the Politico uses the term no less than ten times. I’ve read the article twice and I can’t figure out for sure what they mean by it.
The most common-sense interpretation of the phrase is that it refers to people who hold dual citizenship in the United States and Haiti, but that can’t be the case because those folks couldn’t run for Congress (at least not so far as I know). It could also refer to people who used to be Haitian but immigrated to the United States and are now naturalized citizens. But those folks would be best, and most accurately, described as what they are: Americans. I can’t imagine any competent editor letting that one slide though.
The last interpretation, whish is the silliest but most likely, is that the “Haitian-Americans” are black, which would normally get them tagged as “African-American”, per standard PC procedure. The reporter couldn’t use that, though, because the people in question are actually of Haitian descent, not African.
Well, wait. That’s not precisely correct. Haitians largely are of African and French descent (indeed, French is one of the two official languages of the nation), but I don’t imagine that the appellation French-African-American would fly all that well. So, he had to come up with a formulation that was less awkward than “African-by-way-of-Haiti-Americans”. What we’re left with is “Haitian-American” which is the first PC appellation to refer specifically to another country.
Now, I suppose, we’re going to have to use the same logic and carve up “African-American” into other subgroups such as “Bahamian-American”, “Trinidadian-American”, “Virgin Islander-American”, and “French-American”.
Okay, probably not the last one. That would just be silly, wouldn’t it?
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Category: Oh, THAT liberal media.
