When white folk won't describe black folk by their race

[Country_Gal]

Interestingly, the government is obsessed with race. Every job application asks race, the census breaks it down into even more specific categories. Whole careers are built around racial data. Yet we all are supposed to pretend it doesn’t exist.

 

[doormouse73]

Interestingly, the government is obsessed with race. Every job application asks race, the census breaks it down into even more specific categories. Whole careers are built around racial data. Yet we all are supposed to pretend it doesn’t exist.

 

[Bezant]

Ever have it happen that a white person will totally avoid describing a black or Asian person by their race, even when it would be easiest way to differentiate them from others in the room? They will describe a person by their clothing when they are the only Asian in the room. Someone did that the other day about a person we would be carpooling with. Then I met the woman and she was black. I had asked her what she looked like! In this area there aren’t very many black people.

Is there a social taboo against this?

I have sometimes been misidentified as Asian, South American, or Middle Eastern. I’m Black West Indian and English. Depending on the situation, this is sometimes very amusing, or very annoying.

Saying that, it’s not necessarily wrong to point out the “obvious,” but it can miss the mark entirely, ignore other “obvious” non-racial traits or the other person’s self-perception.

 

[briemile]

It is called “political correctness” and is driven by an oversensitivity in regard to not offending people. I have met people that believe it is racist to notice another person’s race. It is completely whacked out thinking.

As a person who is mixed, I can tell you that this is not caused by over-sensitivity. I have met many people who are Asian, Black, and even White, who would not like someone to say “Oh, it’s the Asian/Black/White girl over there!”.

 

[briemile]

Imagine this: if you were the white person in the room and someone goes " that white gal over there", referring to you and you heard yourself being referred to as such, would you like it?

Or say you were fat, not fat is a descriptive word. Would you say within hearing distance to the fat lady, “oh that fat lady over there ordered that”, and she heard you describing her as fat. She wouldn’t like it, would she?

People just don’t want to come across as racist. But want to appear polite, just use the adjective in a non-derogatory manner. and you should be okay.

I completely agree!