I know what Steve means though

"Boy" was what Yank white slave owners used to call all black men and I think in some southern US states that would be regarded as offensive

But I have had Official British Government Training on PC language and can confirm that over here it's ok (rule of thumb - you can always use "black" as an adjective but never as a noun, so it's OK to say to a jury "the witness saw a black man running away" but not "the witness saw a couple of blacks")

However this is only a rule of thumb since if you couple "black" with an offensive noun it is likely to be a racial epithet - eg Terry's "you black c**t"

Posted By: Old Git, Oct 31, 15:11:58