"...American tendency to believe that things white are necessarily unmarked, that is to say, neutral, ordinary and pure." If that were true, we'd say "brown chocolate" and "chocolate" instead of "chocolate" and "white chocolate." It's not that things white are unmarked, it's that things common are unmarked. "'Brown sugar,' of course, references the colonialist history of the Carribean and American Southeast..." Lordbyron, you may read that into the phrase, but to assume Dalinise intended it that way is to insult all non-blacks (especially the manufacturers of brown sugar!) "...calling representations of blacks "Brown sugar" signals a potentially devastating implication (as with the plantation owners' use above) that undermines the uniquely human status of blacks. We are commodities, like sugar..." Sometimes a term of affection IS JUST a term of affection. When are we being too politically correct? When it gets in the way of open dialog because we have to worry about anything we say or do being misinterpreted.