I know there was a pretty big post on race recently, but there was something that happened today that's been on my mind for a while.
I was in a situation where I was trying to identify another person in the room to a friend of mine that I was with. You know, "the one with blonde hair" or "the tall guy" etc. The room was particularly large and long, with a lot of people and a lot of distance between the person I was trying to identify. This person was black, and there was a significant lack of racial diversity in the room, so this particular identifier would have immediately ended my ramblings. I was so reluctant to say the word "black", something that would have really simplified what I was doing, even in the comfort of a close, personal friend.
Why is this?
My hesitance was unneeded, certainly. I don't think there's anything inherently racist to basically acknowledging different races, and in hindsight I'm quite aware of this. Interestingly enough I find myself doing this every so often, and I know I'm not alone. There's actually a funny bit on the show Louie about this, too.
To me there's probably three possible explanations for our hesitance in even mentioning race in a completely non-racist way.
The first obviously, has to do with the current politically correct driven nature of the world, particularly in the U.S. With race issues currently in the news, we all want to distance ourselves as far away as possible from "racist" as possible, even if it is a little silly.
The second, for me, has to do with, at least with black people, is that although I'm comfortable with calling someone black in private, there seems to be sort of a discrepancy as to what is an appropriate or non-offensive way of referring to people of that race. Some people seem to choose African-American, but I've never met someone that is offended by using the term black, and it seems to make a lot more sense to me. A lot of black people can't logistically trace their roots back to Africa, and just like in America, being "American" can mean a lot of different things. People on the west coast in California can be a lot different than those in Florida. Just like people living in South Africa, Nigeria, or Ethiopia are different, to put them all together and identify them as one race when it's much more complicated than that seems a bit crazy to me.
The last reason I think is a little more general, and has to do with subjecting someone to a single characteristic. The problem is, though, that too use this argument to argue against identifying someone with their race, you also has to do it with every physical attribute. No more can you say "the brunette," because that is implying that you are turning this complex human being into a single identifier, something that hardly defines them. To do this with something like height, hair color, or body type is obviously a little easier to do because there's been a lot less prejudice involving those particular things, but really it's just as pointless in my opinion if you were to argue the same thing about race. If I've literally never met someone and am pointing them out in a crowd, all I can go off of is their physical attributes, and I don't think I should be afraid of being offensive, and to just pretend to be blind about skin color.
I think this is more hurtful than helpful, but I was wondering what everyone here thought. I am looking forward to your responses.