Stop teaching child that it’s okay to refer to someone’s skin colour

[CannotThinkOfName]

Calling someone - a random person you don’t know - black is racist. I don’t care if your personal friend or your family member or someone else you’re close to doesn’t mind being referred to like this because they’re speaking for themselves as individuals.

Pointing out someone by skin colour is rude at best and at worst a form of racism. This is because

1. Skin colour that I was born with is brown.
2. Skin colour that I was born with does not define anyone. It doesn’t define your traits, characteristics, hobbies, goals, ambitions or anything else that truly defines who a person is.
3. It’s a form of racial harassment to start bothering someone at random and bringing up their race and colour for no real reason and singling them out by it.

I’ve seen people say there’s nothing wrong with their child referring to people by skin because they are just “saying what they see”. This is wrong because as a child, I never ever saw myself as “black” or described myself “black”. This is taught as a way to refer to people, it’s not simply a child “saying what they see”.

Please stop teaching your child that it’s okay to refer to people that you don’t know this way. If you do know someone and they’ve told you to call them black then that’s their choice as an individual. They don’t speak for anyone else but themselves.

If you don’t know someone’s name, - just ask them what their name is and call them by their actual name. Not “that black girl” or “the black woman” or “that black lady”.

@ReturntoSpamfritters

fashionSOS Hi. So you're talking about a hypothetical lineup, where you're one of many similar women in uniform and you are all the same height, all the same weight, all have glasses (or not), you all have the same coloured eyes and type and colour and style of hair? You don't have numbers or name tags or earrings or jewellery? May I suggest this is not a very likely scenario?

Hi. You can suggest all you like, but I don't look particularly distinctive other than having yellow skin and small eyes. Sorry.

I'm off work today, but yesterday I was sat near a bloke, and another woman who had the same coloured hair and clothing. I didn't get close enough to check her eye colour, but I imagine it was probably the same.

You could distinguish me and my female colleague by referring to skin colour, or you could say she's the thin one and I'm the fat one. I know what I'd prefer.

I'm sure there were other more minor details to set us apart, but you'd have had to get a lot closer to play spot the difference. Much quicker and easier to refer to one of our ethnicities.

Haven’t rtft, but it’s been interesting reading the Rivers of London novels where the author makes a point of identifying skin colour and similar details for ALL the characters. It’s notable how jarring it is at first, revealing how much there’s a ‘default white’. Also notable how it enhances the reading experience after a few pages.

I think you need to reassess your understanding of racism @CannotThinkOfName

fashionSOS
So you don't mind being pointed out for your small eyes and/or skin colour, that's up to you, but many other people would hate that, and find it "rude at best and racist at worst", as the OP said.

@ReturntoSpamfritters

fashionSOS So you don't mind being pointed out for your small eyes and/or skin colour, that's up to you, but many other people would hate that, and find it "rude at best and racist at worst", as the OP said.

No, I said my distinguishing characteristics were my eyes and my skin colour, and that it was acceptable for you to point me out by reference to my skin colour. "Which one?" "The Chinese lady, over there." Totally OK.

It's not racist to describe someone by the colour of their skin.

It's racist to treat someone poorly because of the colour of their skin.

If people keep crying racism where there is none, it detracts from actual racism and makes life so much harder for everyone.

Honestly, it feels a lot like some people are lucky enough to never have experienced real racism, and they feel the need to be personally offended someone to make up for it. If anyone hasn't experienced it, just be grateful. Don't feel like you have to go looking for it. Believe me, it's horrible.

We often have to describe people lost children etc at work

Surely it's easier to find said child if we know if they are white or black or Asian otherwise it's a needle in a haystack

Especially when it's used so casually and people actually think it makes a point about not being racist/offensive/biased.

Exactly. Their second post added to it and made it all seem like they were pushing for maximum effect. How boring.