Another thing I'm perpetually confused about is what word to use when describing certain races. Is it now more PC to use "African-American", or is it better to use "black"?
I'm still trying to figure out the difference between "Hispanic" and "Latino", and in what circumstances it might be offensive to use one or the other. While trying to find that answer on google, I learned that the word "Chicano", when describing Mexican-Americans, is highly offensive. Actually the term "Mexican-American" might be offensive too, but I'm not sure about that.
I attended K-12 in the San Diego area a few decades ago. It was an upper-middleclass area with a significant minority of Mexican-American students. All the way through middle school, we were "educated" to use the term "Mexican-American" to respectfully describe those classmates without offense. By the time I got to high school, we were re-educated to understand that the new, politically correct term for those students was "Chicano". There was even an elective course called "Chicano Studies" that we were encouraged to take in order to increase our cultural sensitivity.
Now, according to this site, you should never use the word "Chicano" because it's disrespectful, and intended to demean and insult.
Heck, if it weren't for fear of offending you, I might just give up and call everyone a brussel sprout.
I prefer the term "trans-vegetable". ;-)