[ManyTimesBlessed]

It is very important to me that I adjust my vocabulary to whatever is considered appropriate when talking about race.

I am wondering, though, of the title for those of African descent. I have heard that "African American" is preferred, but others say "black" is more appropriate. Are both okay? The problem with African American, for example, is that people from Haiti or even some of the people from the coastal areas of Guatemala are not African, but they have similar coloring and features. Isn't it wrong to assume that someone with a dark completion is from Africa? Also, our daughter that we are adopting from Africa is just African or Liberian, she isn't American yet. :-)

I want to be sure I don't offend anyone and I also want to teach my children respectful ways to talk about race, so any help you can provide would be great.

Thank you.

~Rachel


P.S. I want to note that I realize it is best to refer to people in other ways like "That sweet lady we met at church who let us hold her baby" instead of "that Asian lady who let us hold her baby". But, sometimes you do need talk about people's races and I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly!