Skin

I hate political correctness, especially when it comes to describing someone's skin colour. Why must we say African Canadian/American? What if they're from Jamaica? Or what if they're Norwegian with dark skin? I have no problem describing my co-workers as "black" or "white". They know what colour they are! There are many people with similar names and to talk about one in particular, if I have to describe them by their skin colour then I will! It's not being offensive - it's stating a fact. Luckily my co-workers all have sensible attitudes about this.

I had a patient once who was waiting for an xray after having his dislocated shoulder put back in place. I couldn't figure out which doctor had seen him. Thinking about the two doctors that were on, I asked him "was the doctor that saw you white or oriental?" The non-oriental patient became quite offended by this. His response was a huffy "it's ASIAN, not oriental". Conveniently enough the ASIAN doctor walked by. I said "hey Dr. K, you don't mind if I describe you as oriental do you?" The doctor shrugged his shoulders, said "meh" and walked away. He obviously didn't care. And I smiled smugly at my patient and sent him and his annoying political correctness off to xray.