Political Correctness, Casting, Etc.

In a message dated 1/3/07 9:50:30 PM, xxxxxxxxx@somebigcosmeticscompany.com writes:

Can we use more pc language for the talent... Caucasian, african american etc.... Don't want to create more work but it will be an oficial document for somebigcosmeticscompany and distributed around.
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Hello! My name is Stephen Bruckert.

I have been building your casting website and I just got a note re: political correctness on the casting website.

While I recognize that you may be pursuing alternate language for the website simply to avoid offending anyone who may see it, your request is somewhat problematic.

None of the dark-skinned women on the website are African-American. They have dark skin and features that we, as Americans, may identify as African-American or 'black', but none of the women are from America. Model 1 is half-Moroccan and has a Moroccan passport and may therefore be considered fully African. Model 2 has African ancestors but is a French citizen. Model 3 self-identifies as being from Martinique (an island in the Caribbean Sea which is a part of France and the European Union) and Egypt.

None of them are from America making them, by definition, not African-American. Two of the women are African-French (French-African?) and one is African.

So, ironically, in adopting language designed to return a full sense of identity to marginalized groups, you have actually robbed these women of their correct and actual identities.

Unless, of course, in the context of the advertisements, the women are 'playing' Americans, in which case your nomenclature would be acceptable.

If I actually hit the 'send' button on this e-mail, I'll probably get fired, so I'll just post it to my blog instead.

- Stephen