Yesterday, in his “B…

Yesterday, in his “Best of the Web Today” column, James Taranto referred to John Kerry’s wife Teresa as an African-American. Apparently, that generated an avalanche of E-mail criticizing him for that characterization, since she is white. But, as Taranto notes today, Mrs. Kerry was born and raised in Mozambique, and is a naturalized US citizen. “Born in Africa, citizen of America–that’s the definition of an African-American, right?”, he asks.

After a discussion of an E-mail that disputed this, Taranto gives his parting shot in his classic style:

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines African-American as a synonym of Afro-American, which in turn means “an American of African and especially of black African descent.” So apparently under common usage an American who was born and raised in Africa is less of an African-American than one whose family has been here for centuries. Even so, we have a dream that African-Americans will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the continent of their origin.

Humorous, yet deadly accurate.

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