Carol Lin, CNN Anchor, referred Sunday to the two French Muslim boys that were electrocuted as African-Americans, presumably because they were black. Someone ought to tell her that just because you’re black doesn’t make you an American (for that matter, neither does it make you African, though likely these were boys were African-French).

LIN: Hard to say because it’s been 11 days since two African- American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this.

Carol should know by now that the proper term for the rioters is “undocumented dismantlers.” (Via MM) Or is it “Terrorist French Fries“?

On a side note, as hard as it is to believe, the rioters in France have ignored the curfew imposed by the government. The nerve.

It seems the bribes didn’t work either.

The Chicago Tribune seems to think that the government ought to be nice to the rioters, and not call them “scum.” Maybe they could negotiate a settlement where the rioters stop burning cars and firebombing subway stations if the government leaders will stop calling them mean names.

It would be an exaggeration to blame the riots that have swept France on a poor choice of words, but Nicolas Sarkozy, the country’s tough-talking interior minister, hardly helped when he characterized the young men responsible for the violence as la racaille.

The rough translation is “scum.”

The word is thoroughly offensive, and it personalized the antagonism between the government and the angry young men from immigrant neighborhoods who have been so enthusiastically attacking its authority for the last two weeks.

UPDATE: Looks like Taranto also caught the African American quote. Via the Pontificator: “African-American? No wonder the French police were after them. But why are the French Muslims upset?”

And Stuck on Stupid wonders: “Here’s a question that might cause Ms. Lin a few synaptic misfires: Is a person born in the U.S. of white South African immigrant parents, an African-American?”

UPDATE 11/14: Michelle noticed. :-)