Something else that irritates me is when someone is describing someone, and, so as not to appear racist, whispers the race as though it is a bad thing.
“Today this (looks around shiftily) black woman cut in line.”
Another thing that irritates me is using politically correct speech instead of descriptive speech. Sometimes the news will describe a the perpetrator as an African American when no-one actually knows what their country of origin is. They could very well be African, Haitian, Jamaican, or Dutch for all they know. There is nothing wrong with being black (or any other ethnicity) and people need to stop treating it like a shameful secret. I know this because some of my best friends are black : )