My family had a few minutes to watch part of the beginning of Rocky IV. My wife and I were providing him a bit of background on the set-up of Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago. My son asked the question, "Which one is Apollo? The guy with the dark skin?" I replied, "yep" and we went on.
Moments later, I rethought my reply, and considered should I have said more of, "Yeah, he's the black guy." Or, something else? Or, does it even matter?
I am at the laptop checking stuff for work. This leads to my posting.
What do you think, Hubski?
It's a euphemism. So, I suggest to avoid using it in writing, or lettting it become a vocabulary mainstay. It's also a pretty poor euphemism, and comes off as a less sensitive and open than "black guy," to me. But, in this context, I don't see why you'd need to change your response. I don't know how old your son is, but if he's watching Rocky, he probably has some concept of race. If not, this is a whole different question. So, your reply was fine, but if you think it could become a problem, maybe talk to your son about sensitivity in word choice.
Oh, yeah, maybe you should have corrected him, but it's for sure not bad enough to be upset about. Just one example, good or bad, isn't going to set him up for life. Your idea of gentle correction would be spot on I think though. Don't scold him for it, just correct it, like a mispronounciation.