person who has dark skin or person who is black

[ginodacampoismydh]

I did nt think I was BU or gave my comment much thought at the time, but exp and my dd were having a conversation when exp could not remember someones name and he descibed her as the dark skinned girl. DD came and asked me what the dark skined girls name was and I kind of said not correcting her as such but the black girls name is....

exp thought i was correcting his use of language and said that black girl sounds rasist any way??

i was correcting dd a little as i would rather use accepted terms but this could also have got out of hand in saying the girl who is from a black minirity group is called....

exp though I WBU when we discussed this. what do you recon?

[ginodacampoismydh]

me to wassa,

[DamselInDisgrace]

Your worries about 'dark skin' might be because of memories of elderly relatives referring to people as 'darkies', which is clearly not a good term to use in any circumstances.

[DamselInDisgrace]

To be honest, I feel a bit horrible for having typed it out here, even in scare quotes.

[WassaAxolotl]

Damsel, by Jove, I think you've got it!

[DamselInDisgrace]

My grampa was always prone to the use of embarrassingly racist language (as is my dad, which says a lot about him, whereas with grampa I think it was mostly generational). Anyway, he was over in canada visiting my uncle one summer. He answered the door to one of my cousin's friends and shouted up the stairs '

[fishtankneedscleaning]

It is acceptable (and preffered) for people to be described as black, white or Asian.

To describe someone as having dark skin is just an accurate description with no offence caused or taken.

To describe someone in terms of the colour of their skin, together with a slur - For example the Ugly dark skinned lady - would be considered to be a racist remark as it would be seen to be a demeaning and offensive remark based on skin colour.

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

NEVER tick other. Simply draw your own HUGE box and write the description you want next to it.

When DD and DS1 were little there wasnt even a box for mixed race. Used to piss be off no end.

There is a woman shrew round here. She is like a cartoon character. I was chatting to her the other day and she was recounting a story of how her DD called a man black. Not in an insulting way (which is suprising given her mother). Everytime she said 'black' she did so by mouthing the word rather than say it. She kept saying how mortified she was (well she didnt say mortified) that her DD had said black. It went on for bloody ages.

I did try and explain that its fine to say the word black out loud and no big black man is going to jump out and beat her child up.

Silly cow. (but it was really funny)

[MarniesMummy]

I'm tooooo tired to discuss this, but just for you...

I have dark skin. Therefore, I am black.

You are right your exp is wrong (though unlikely to offend any black person within earshot.;

[TheCoalitionNeedsYou]

Indian and Pakistani are nationalities not ethnicities. There are several different ethnicities in both countries.

[TheCoalitionNeedsYou]

Asian doesn't work though - as used it includes sub-continental Asians, Far Eastern Asians and Central asians who all look entirely different.

You could even include Arabs, Slavs and Persians if you were being strict.

[TheCoalitionNeedsYou]

I think most peoples internal list of ethnicities goes something like:-

Black
White
Chinesey
Arabs/Jews (differentiated by hats)
Funny looking

[TheCoalitionNeedsYou]

Oh and Indian - durrrr.

[Stinkermink]

I recently had to explain (very gently) to an adult trainee that the use of the word "ethnic" to describe a person or groups of people could be construed as racist, if not just unaware...the phrase she used was "when dealing with ethnics...". The word I wanted to use rather than unaware was ignorant! But I understand it can be a minefield for people.

[TheCoalitionNeedsYou]

Aye it's 'Efnix' innit.

[BertieBotts]

My mum refuses to use the word "black" and insists on "coloured" no matter how often I try to explain that it's now offensive to use them that way around :(

She's not even that old so I don't know where this comes from.

[AngelaChase]

lol at 'differentiated by hats'