I did it

My cultural influence is finally cemented. I have eliminated a phrase from the lexicon that has troubled me. The term is 'African American'. I don't like it for a number of reasons. One is, it takes a long time to type. Second is, I know several black folks, none of whom were born in Africa. I understand generations ago they (black folk) came from African. However, unless you were born in Africa and moved to America... it seems silly to call you an African American. From Anthropology I learned we (all human beings) came from the Indus Valley region of India however long ago. So, if we are going back generations, couldn't we all call ourselves 'Indian Americans'. Or this, we came from apes, right? How about 'Simian Americans'?

Yes, these are eggagerations bording on stupid just to make a point. As a result, I refer to people of African heritage as 'black'. In fact, all the black guys I know also refer to themselves as black. I also seem to hear black guys refer to other black guys as 'black'. For some reason, the media has missed this boat. Just this afternoon for the first time in history, a black coach is going to the Superbowl. This is tremendous. If you watched the second came, you now know that both coaches are black... truly historic. On Fox, though, they would only refer to coach Lovie Smith as the first African American coach to go to the Superbowl. They could not, or would not, refer to him as 'black'. Just now, though, the story is the main page of CNN. It says:

For the first time in the Super Bowl's 41-year history, not one but two black head coaches will be on the sidelines. Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it all the way to the NFL's marquee game Sunday when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship. About four hours later, his pal and mentor, Tony Dungy, joined him there when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title.

They did it, they used the black instead of African American . This is a victory that I take at least partial credit for.

So, I took a tour around the web to see who is using what. The local Denver NBC affiliate also is using the term 'black' coaches. It is pertinent to know that CNN's feed is the Associated Press. That is the same company that everyone gets their news from. I mean everyone. So, let's take a lookie over at the other news content provider... Reuters. This is the bomb I found on the Rueters site:

"Being the first black coach to lead his team, of course the players knew about it and wanted to help us make history today,"

Know what makes that a bombshell? That quote came from Lovie Smith himself. To be thorough, I even checked the local Fox site and they also used the term black. So, it is over America. I don't want to hear the term 'African American' unless you are talking about a real 'African American', like Dave Matthews.