To think my aunt's comment is racist?

[Ironfloor]

The other day, DD (3) and I were skyping my parents (who live in another country) and my aunt also happened to be there. We had gifted DD with a globe for her birthday and she was very excited about her newly acquired knowledge of the different countries. So my parents named some countries and asked her to point them out on the globe. DD did so and then continued to talk about Africa, which is her favourite continent at the moment. She pretended to have visits Africa and was talking about all the sights and sounds she saw there (most of it were made up, of course). Then my aunt asked her 'when you visited Africa, did you see a lot of black peoples?'. My immediate reaction was 'WTAF'. Please tell me I'm not BU in thinking that this was an incredibly racist comment?

I had the 'how black' conversation a couple of years ago - with a Nigerian student. The conversation was really interesting and all present had positive input. Then a parent complained about me... a white parent. Apparently I was really racist and should be censured somehow - I think she said sacked.

I took some pleasure in writing back to her, to explain myself. We were discussing racial traits at the time. It was part of both the PE and Psychology A levels classes I was teaching!

Sometimes being PC can be a bit of a pain, sometimes a thing just is.

She was educating your child = lots of Black people live in Africa aswell as the UK etc.

YABU

It's a lazy, silly comment, but bit racist I wouldn't have said. However I get why you feel offended.

But not* racist.

Mackeral, there are no polar bears in Antarctica, and no Eskimos* either unless they are working on one of the research stations there.

*And I think we aren't supposed to say 'Eskimo' any more, but refer to their actual cultural background (e.g. Inuit).

For me, the more appropriate question would have been "Did you see any other white people?" I was people watching recently in downtown Nairobi, only about 1/100 passerby wasn't dark African.

Racist (noun) = a person who believes that one race is superior to another and favours social and political systems that embody that belief.

Racist (adjective) = a statement which indicates that one race should be considered superior to another.

Can you explain why you think your Aunt is racist/said something racist?

How did your Daughter respond to the question?

It can't see how it was racist, as there was no value judgement on 'black
people'. Yes, there are a lot of black people in Africa. Someone visiting Africa may see them. It's factual.

Only racist in my book if there is an explicit or implicit value judgement.

My husband's family is from south Africa and we've visited Africa a bit.
Trust me, there ARE a lot of black people there!

Not racist, a bit of a silly comment but I think you're overreacting

Not racist. Just factual.

VulcanWoman - it sort of went unnoticed by her (thankfully).

I think you all are right. It's not racist but very stupid and thick. There are so many things to talk about Africa, why bring a 3 year old's attention to the 'black people', is what I was thinking.

Being factual is hardly bring racist.

A lot of black people do live in Africa. Lots of whites live in Northern Europe and Scandinavian. It was clumsy rather than racist, but nothing basically wrong with it.

I wouldn't bother making it out to be anything particularly shocking to your DD.

*Being, not bring! Stupid autocorrect.

Why is it that people love looking for racial and offensive elements in everything. People are terrified to open their mouths FGS.
How is referring to someone who is black as black being racist.

A lot of kids struggle with this. They are so scared of being called racist that they will avoid referring to colour at all. Even in a perfectly harmless way e.g. trying to describe a friend. They'll list every vague feature as you get more and more confused, before whispering "the black/Asian/Indian/etc one!" and looking embarrassed.

The way I explain it is to say that "is it a physical description, or an explanation?". E.G. " they are black" is fine. "They are X because they are black" is most likely to be a racist statement.

That's how I see it anyway.

I wouldn't even say it's being thick

If we were talking about Antarctica, I'd probably talk about snow, penguins, polar bears and eskimos.

But then you'd look a bit silly, given two out of those four would be roughly 20 000km from their usual environment.

OP, are you the kind of person who misunderstands the term PC to the extent that, when asked to describe the staff member you previously talked to when returning to a GP surgery/shop/business about something, you get positively panic-stricken, and waffle on about how you think she had a blue dress on and maybe a navy cardigan and she had something on her head - anything other than say 'I spoke to the young black woman with the dreadlocks'? because that would (in your head) be 'un-PC'???

What other generic thing would you say about an entire continent, then, OP? Something idiotic about safari, because everyone knows that all of Africa has lions in? Something about poverty because every African lives in a grass hut and exists on less than a dollar a day? Something about war because every single African country has war going on in it? Any of these statements could be seen as racist, thick or patronising - but asking about black people? Not so much.

(Interesting point to note: in rural areas of Sudan, South Sudan, Somaliland, Uganda and DRC, I have been followed by kids, pointing at me and shouting "white person, white person" - because it is unusual. Whole point.)

So - yes, you ABVU.

Mildvirago - I guess I am that person. It's just that I want to describe people in way that is not to do with their ethnicity? It's the same way I would do it to my DC. There are black kids in DC's class and as far as I'm aware, DC has never spoken about them as being 'black'. She thinks that people all look different and hasn't noticed it's due to different ethnicities.

Thank god this thread is full of sanity. I was afraid to read it.

Shane you've got a flaming Iron. Your aunt said a weird thing, totally out of sync with the way most people would talk to a three year old (who tend to be fairly matter-of-fact when it comes to skin colour anyway).

Could someone explain to me why it is "thick" to state that there are a lot of black people in Africa?

But OP, why not use ethnicity as any other neutral category to distinguish a person in an adult situation where you need to rapidly single someone out from a number of people you might have seen in order for something to be accomplished? Unless you're using ethnicity in a negative way, tying yourself into knots in order to avoid mentioning it at all is as illogical as not mentioning that it was a woman or a man who dealt with you the last time!

I mean, I get that certain uses of ethnicity are loaded, and I wouldn't be singling out a category of non-Caucasian children in my son's pre-school either, and I think you're right about that - my three year old is at a very multi-ethnic pre-school and doesn't yet have ethnicity as a mental category) but I think that's a different thing to, say when the GP surgery (which has lost some crucial document yet again) says 'Who did you talk to earlier?', you saying 'the tall Asian lady in the pink cardigan'.