Confusion, even at the highest level

[Laurence Horn]

Maybe just variation rather than confusion, like "Barack Obama said today...   The President went on to argue…"  (Assuming that the sets denoted by "African-Americans" and "Blacks" are identical; otherwise, it is pretty confusing without further clarification of whether the latter category includes immigrants from Vancouver, say, and/or the former includes white South Africans, both of which I strongly doubt.)

LH


On Jul 31, 2014, at 5:46 PM, Randy Alexander wrote:

> USA Today has this:
> 
> "According to a Seattle Police Department report
> <http://www.seattle.gov/police/publications/special/Public_Possession_of_Legal_Marijuana.pdf>,
> more than 36% of the 82 citations were to African-Americans. Blacks make up
> 8% of Seattle's population, according to the 2010 Census
> <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53/5363000.html>."
> 
> http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/07/31/seattle-police-officer-marijuana-enforcement/13415119/
> 
> Randy
> On Jul 28, 2014 6:57 PM, "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Confusion, even at the highest level
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> "[Name], played by _African-American_ actor Isaac C. Singleton, Jr., and
>> [Name], played by the _black_ English actor, Treva Etienne."
>> 
>> - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
>> 
>> I'd have expected "African-English" or "African-British," if the prefix,
>> _African-_, had any real, independent use other than as a sad, depressing
>> calque on "Irish-American" et sim.
>> 
>> --
>> -Wilson
>> -----
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> -Mark Twain
>> 
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>> 
> 
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