Can you really not say "brown" for suntanned anymore?

[Lightsfall]

My friend works for a smallish company.

After a couple of week's leave she returned to work tanned and someone told her she was "brown", meaning it as a compliment.

Boss pulled them to one side and told them you can't be calling people brown, it must be "tanned".

I'm definitely not a PC gone mad type, and try to keep up with changing language, so as not to offend, but I didn't know this one.

Quite. As a white person, I don't get offended if someone says "white paint" (or whatever) so if you apply that principle to other situations there should never be an issue!

Baa baa rainbow sheep was a myth
Black coffee ban was a myth
Black bin bag ban was a myth
Blackboard ban was a myth
and so and and so forth...

Yes, but I think that's because white people don't have the historical experience of discrimination that others have, and that "white" has generally been seen as good and black bad. E.g. Black Sheep is offensive, in a way that White Knight isn't.

Tone is everything
Brown is now a common and acceptable descriptor of a person of Asian descent.

If you said to a white person, with a newly acquired suntan, "Eww you're brown" with a tone of scorn or disgust, that would obviously be able to be interpreted as racist (although you might genuinely not be racist, you might just be very against tanning for health reasons, but you still need to think about how it's received and choose better words)

But if you said "Ooh you're brown" with a tone of happiness as a compliment, that is literally saying "Brown skin is a good thing" Can't possibly be racist.

I'm not saying baa baa black sheep is offensive BTW, but the use of black to mean bad things, probably is.

Baa baa rainbow sheep is a children's book teaching them about colours. So no, not a myth.
Nothing was ever literally banned. No one seems to be saying it was. You are just frowned on for doing the "wrong" thing and the "wrong" thing keeps changing making people worry. But I think you know that and it doesn't suit your agenda. 🤔

Black sheep stood out from all the white sheep and their wool was worth less because it couldn't be dyed. It definitely isn't racist or offensive. Except to sheep.

Yes, and the Muslims have cancelled Christmas yet again, landing us all with Winterval.

It never gets old.

I feel like I have entered the twilight zone in this thread

Yes, as I said, it was a myth. (Yes, Rainbow sheep existed/exists. Because then you can string out a short nursery rhyme into a longer nursery rhyme. Not because anyone ever had a problem with it).

I could go on Deliveroo right now and order myself a black coffee (from a cafe called Black Sheep, no less) and a roll of black bin bags. So it is 100% fearmongering nonsense that you 'can't say' these things, and countering that nonsense is my 'agenda'.

Yeah, I remember that rumour too. I lived in the actual borough that supposedly imposed this. It was even mentioned Parliament at the time

Chester Stern claimed in the Mail on Sunday that 'black bin liners have been banned at Bernie Grant's left-wing Haringey council because the are 'racially offensive'. This was supported by an alleged statement from an anonymous 'storeman' at the north London council's central depot and by a quote from a councillor who said, 'there was no written ban on the use of black sacks' but added that the council had 'a strong anti-racist policy'. Stern ended his piece with: 'The council has now changed over to grey sacks to avoid offending West Indian workers in the cleaning department'.The report, notwithstanding the citation of an anonymous source, is without substance.

The council had not decided to ban black bin liners. Indeed, days after the article appeared, the Civic Services Committee accepted a tender from a local supplier of black bin liners, since these were the cheapest on offer. Stern, of course, could not have known about this decision, since it was taken after he wrote the report for the Mail on Sunday

Who made this new rule up? Absurd.

Yeah I just googled those lyrics...wtaf. Never knew that.

Brown ethnic person here. Suntanned or brown is fine. Wtaf is this nonsense?

Just copy the Irish....both of these expressions must be used in a very cheerful approving tone:
"You've caught the sun" (The tops of your shoulders and the back of your neck are burned and it's going to sting tomorrow)
"You've a great colour!" (You've been on holiday and are any other colour than translucent blue ghost).

I'm not from London so have no idea about that. I heard it from a woman in Birmingham who said that her workplace had implemented the rule of saying refuse sacks.

Yes, well, lies have a habit of getting their boots on, don't they?

Rubbish, along with the made-up baa baa black sheep story, and the black bin liners nonsense. Noone is stopping you, there is no national outcry, it's at best a third hand account of someone who might be overly sensitive. Then someone on here will tell their friend that someone on the internet's boss had told them not to say brown, and the cycle will continue.

I am dual heritage and I often get told I’ve got a nice tan or asked if I’ve been away. I just say ‘I’m lucky to be half Gujerati, so I look tanned all year round’. I just can’t see how it would be offensive at all-to me it’s just not a big deal in the slightest and an easy assumption for people to make. I guess each to their own but I can’t think that anyone has ever (in my experience of this being said to me) meant any malice in it at all.

Haha I thought of Enid Blyton too reading this thread

This.

I heard of being unable to play certain songs:

Substitute by the Who (I look all white but my dad was black)
Barbados by Typically Tropical (cultural appropriation)
Kung Fu Fighting (makes fun of Funky Chinamen from Funky China Town)
Oliver's Army (uses the N Word)
Turning Japanese (Not sure why)

Fucks sake. We’re back here With this?

If no-one’s called bingo yet I’ll toss in winterval and Xmas what’s the prize?

Fucks sake. We’re back here With this?

If no-one’s called bingo yet I’ll toss in winterval and Xmas what’s the prize?

A free Reform membership.