How would I use racial terms in a sensitive way

College Essays
1

<p>The following paragraph is an excerpt from my developing essay (just a rough draft so far) and I don’t know if it’s PC enough to not raise any flags</p>

<p>“I turned to face the voice, which came from a table full of black guys I’d never met, all of which were managing to murmur with each other while keeping eye contact with me. One of them, probably the source of the “hey,” summoned me to the table with a finger wag. I complied.”</p>

<p>This essay deals with race pretty heavily (in a non-offensive, hopefully non-cliche, what-it-means-to-me kind of way), but I’m not sure how to approach it. Should I replace “black guys” with “African American males”? Is “black guys” fine? Does describing the table of guys as black make me seem racist? </p>

<p>I’m also a black guy, if that helps, but I don’t know what to call myself.</p>

<p>Stupid question, sure, but you can never be too safe.</p>

2

<p>It might be iffy if you were not black, but since you are it should be completely fine. It also seems to add to your tone, “a table of African American guys” would sound a little out of place in the excerpt you provided.</p>

3

<p>I’d always use ‘guys’, unless there was some reason to know they are ‘black guys’. I guess for the story it is an important point. Is it also apparent that you are a black guy?</p>

<p>I think most people, black or white, do say ‘black guys’ I don’t think it is un PC or anything in the common vernacular–if it’s pretty common for you then it is fine.</p>

4

<p>“Black” isn’t offensive
The PC term is people of color (this is 100% PC), but it sounds awkward</p>

<p>Black guys sounds really colloquial though</p>

5

<p>Is colloquial a bad thing, though? I don’t want my essay to sound too formal.</p>