Sir, - In Kevin Myers writes (An Irishman's Diary, September 11th) that "One such clique will no doubt soon dispose of Native American. . ."
At the risk of being rather pedantic, I'd just like to point out that the term Native American seemed already to have been displaced when I was in Canada last October. Educated people over there referred to First Nations People rather than Native Americans. Perhaps Mr Myers would find this term more satisfactory, as it doesn't imply that other Americans are not "native".
I would think, however, that it is rather patronising to suggest that Europe does not think about linguistic changes proposed by America. I, for one, use the term African-American because it seems to be the term with which most black/African-American people are comfortable, not because some elite clique decided it was appropriate. It is strange to expect language to remain static despite profound cultural change. - Yours etc.,
Deirdre Clancy,
Lower Beechwood Avenue,
Dublin 6.