Being careful not to use terms most people in question find offensive, and immediately adopting the newest term coined by academics and culture mavens 10 months ago are two entirely different things.
Either takes so little effort that I'm happy to try to do both in the hopes I'm not being a dick to someone without meaning or understanding it.
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People dancing on eggshells on how to reference ethnic groups in conversation is definitely an issue that IMO causes unwarranted anxiety.
I also speaking from the position of a white man, I hate this part of all of it. There are situations where you are just wanting to describe a person and it is so much more efficient, but all of the historic context makes using these terms to describe people guilt inducing. Sometimes your its just that you were introduced to a bunch of people and you want help to remember everyone, and you just want to say to the person doing the introductions [hey what was the black guys name again], but instead your stumbling over words, pointing at people, its almost worse and your certainly doing more to single the person out as different by being so inefficient with your language, but you don't want to be seen a impolite.
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Originally Posted by New Era
"People of color" as a term has a history in the US and it is largely associated with the subjugation of African Americans. Other races or ethnicities were not usually captured under this euphemism.
I was going to say, but AFC pretty much got it, I think people have the causality backwards when the blame the name for negative stereotypes, you can people of colour to whatever you want, peoples of non european origin, those guys from the big southern continent, espresso coloured folk.... the label will eventually become connected to the stereotype as long as the stereotype exists. And as mentioned in my post above, at some point in time we need the language to effective describe the physical attributes of people, it is just far to inefficient to pretend that we don't see those difference especially when we are trying do something as simple as describe someone.
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Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
The problem is any term that denotes a minority will become negative in time because the word takes on the negative perceptions of the majority.
The logical part of me gets annoyed that language is a bit of an ever changing minefield, the empathetic part of me realises that trying to be careful about what I say is a tiny price to pay to not cause hurt to my fellow humans and utterly insignificant to the issues that minorities face
I've often wondered if the civil war ever really did end. Nothing has really changed over the years. It's so sad we don't see each others soul and spirit instead of skin colour. Uniqueness should be celebrated inside and out. Heartbreaking to see the true heart of human nature
I revisited this song and video over the last week, and it is chilling. Sure, this was in response to previous incidents, but sometimes there is an artist who captures the spirit of something so perfectly, and this might be it. Both the song and video are important. The lyrics and tone of the music say something. The visuals to go along with it say much more. I'm stunned that this was released just over 2 years ago, because it may as well have been released this week.
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You capitalise proper adjectives, which is what Black person/Black community/etc is. Pronouns are “he/she/they/we” etc where the noun has already been mentioned. “Black” as a noun is considered offensive (a black, the blacks).
What the damn hell. 'Canadian' is a proper adjective because 'Canada' is a proper noun. 'Orwellian' is a proper adjective, because, again, 'Orwell' is a proper noun. So how can 'Black' be a proper adjective? If 'Black' as a noun is offensive, then surely 'Black' as a proper adjective must also be, as it implies the existence of a related proper noun.
What the damn hell. 'Canadian' is a proper adjective because 'Canada' is a proper noun. 'Orwellian' is a proper adjective, because, again, 'Orwell' is a proper noun. So how can 'Black' be a proper adjective? If 'Black' as a noun is offensive, then surely 'Black' as a proper adjective must also be, as it implies the existence of a related proper noun.
Just don't go calling someone a Canadian in Australia.
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I revisited this song and video over the last week, and it is chilling. Sure, this was in response to previous incidents, but sometimes there is an artist who captures the spirit of something so perfectly, and this might be it. Both the song and video are important. The lyrics and tone of the music say something. The visuals to go along with it say much more. I'm stunned that this was released just over 2 years ago, because it may as well have been released this week.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
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While I'm here... I'll add that I'm arguing with black people on Twitter right now who are telling me that anybody who has flown the Confederate flag supports police brutality and slavery, and you're ignorant if you think otherwise. I don't agree with that. Further, in my opinion, Nascar banning that flag is so far down the list of things that people (in general) should presently care about.
Also far down the list of things I care about is if I'm called Black or black. At the moment what I'm worried about is whether or not I need to keep my protest signs for the next time there's a protest, or if I'll just be making new ones. A bit concerned if I overreacted in my somewhat cordial debate with a guy wearing an "All Lives Matter" shirt at the Coventry Shoppers this morning. I think it went alright.
Reached out to that marine with the tape over his mouth on Reddit, super awesome guy. Props to him.
Candace Owens still sucks. Donald Glover is awesome.
That's all I got, carry on.
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What the damn hell. 'Canadian' is a proper adjective because 'Canada' is a proper noun. 'Orwellian' is a proper adjective, because, again, 'Orwell' is a proper noun. So how can 'Black' be a proper adjective? If 'Black' as a noun is offensive, then surely 'Black' as a proper adjective must also be, as it implies the existence of a related proper noun.
That was my understanding too, but it’s been quite some time since I invested in the language arts.
The only reason I think it’s worth mentioning is that such trivial matters seem to minimize the real issues, while imposing (what I would call nonsensical) standards to an entire group of people. Imagine, telling a black person what method of ‘black’ should be offensive to them. How one identifies with their culture and background is up to them, and it’s the meaning and message behind whatever title someone else gives them that should be the actual focus.
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No, no…I’m not sloppy, or lazy. This is a sign of the boredom.
Imagine, telling a black person what method of ‘black’ should be offensive to them.
To clarify, the notion of people debating isn't offensive, just... a waste of resources? For reasons entirely unrelated to this semantic thing I want Ellen Degeneres to go away forever.
"the blacks have every right to be mad"
"blacks have every right to be mad"
"Blacks have every right to be mad"
These statements are equivalent. Maybe some black people on Twitter see a difference and would care. I do not. Just like I don't care for Candace Owens.
