No, I didn't know anything of the sort. I only noticed "Asian-Americans" and "Americans" in the same sentence once you pointed it out. I understand the offense

No, I didn't know anything of the sort. I only noticed "Asian-Americans" and "Americans" in the same sentence once you pointed it out. I understand the offense that this could cause but to be honest I'd find it odd if he was using "less snobbish" as a negative term. If anything I thought he was being negative towards the "Americans". Also I sense we both believe that discrimination is wrong, you've taken this fairly strongly. But we approach this matter differently. Your point about how I would react being described as anything other than South African is dead on. But the truth is that apartheid and colonialism has meant that not all South Africans were born with the same opportunities. So nationality may exist in some abstract sense apart form race but it is not a great equaliser. A whole lot of what I know about the US leads me to believe that this is something our countries have in common. This is not a verbal trick: I firmly believe that the only way to deal with discrimination is to recognise it even where nobody is using the words. If anything the "trick" is pretending that a stamp on a form wipes out the tremendous advantages or disadvantages of skin colour.