To think this is a racist comment?

[chicaguapa]

My sister sent a text to my dad after X Factor yesterday saying 'bye bye shouty black woman'. I told my dad that I thought it was a horrible thing to say, but he said I was over-reacting. It wouldn't be totally out of character for her. AIBU?

HecateQueenOfWitches would it work the other way around as well though?

For instance if my dp was over the otherside of the room talking a group of black men and i had to single him out to someone, would saying "My dp is the man over there, the white man."

If you describe a person as "a white" person when amoung lots of black people, is that racist as well?

I'm a bit confused, MsSparkle. I said that wasn't racist. That's descriptive. I said giving race where it was not needed was racist.

"If I wanted to show someone which was my husband and he was sitting with a group of white men, I could say - the one with the jeans on, or the bald one, or the black one, depending which would single him out (if they were all wearing jeans, or several were bald for example)"

See? describing. I wasn't saying that was racist.

And yes, if your husband was white, sitting with a group of black men, saying "the white one" or "the one with jeans" or "the bald one" even (if he is ) would be narrowing down from a group to one, for identification purposes.

agree slightlyjaded

Shouty woman would have sufficed. But shouty black woman (to me) sounds like she's trying to lay on a character to black women.

Gosh.

YABU for watching that shite.

Sometimes it really helps to identify people by their colour. I work from home most of the time, but had attended one meeting with the rest of the team. When I was given a new manager, I commented to a colleague that I was not sure if I had met this particular person at the meeting I had attended (there were about 20 people there). My colleague responded with "X is black, does that help" and yes it did, enormously.

Yes my dad was watching X Factor so knew who had gone out. I think that on its own the comment might not neccessarily be a racist one, but I do still think my sister meant it in a negative way towards a black woman. Discrimation according to race is racism, referring to race isn't, IMHO.

chicaguapa - I think you have reached the right conclusion. The statement taken on it's own, without any further information (eg that your dad had a clue which woman was which) is not racist. With context, it could be percieved to be racist. Knowing your sister as you do, it probably was.

However, I did have a little think about this to myself. Is she also being sexist by using the word woman?

Not unless she's implying all women are shouty.