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.
Well, I would like to quote Toni Morrison, discussing the absurdity of racism on The Colbert Report :I don't think there's anything inherently racist to basically acknowledging different races
There is no such thing as race, none, there is just a human race, scientifically and biologically, racism is a construct, a social construct and it has benefits, money can be made of of it, people who don’t like themselves can feel better because of it, it can describes certain kinds of behavior that are wrong or misleading. So it has a social function, racism, but race can only be defined as a human being.
I get what you're saying and a lot of the cultural and social definitions of race are obviously a human construct, but for my initial problem, as a white mal, if I stand next to a black male, I'm going to see some physical differences, notably skin color. There are some biological differences between races, but the problem is that that there are a lot of culturally-defined groups of people that have somehow adopted the word "race." I admit the word has changed over time, but my original dilemma still stands. If I'm trying to identify someone across the room, am I limited to saying "that human being over there," or maybe should I say "the darker-skinned guy."? I'm certainly not attaching any sort of cultural or social characteristics when I say "the black guy," I'm honestly just referring to the color of skin. I don't like mentioning race in a lot of situations, like when the news is covering a piece on a criminal and they say "white male," "Latino woman," etc. because I feel like that can perpetuate those attachments we try to avoid. But in my situation, I don't think I'm attaching anything to it, and don't see why there's anything wrong with it.
I watched the Reginald Hunter bit linked by RicePaddy and identified with it. His bottom line to the "Am I racist?" question is "Good on you, that you check yourself." For everything you wrote in this post -- "Good on you." For observing your hesitation about saying, "black": good on you for wondering what it was about. Reginald Hunter talks about the kind of white person who is always asking black friends, "Was that racist?" I think white people just want to know where the line is -- what can I say or do now without being offensive? The trouble is everyone's line is different. I had a story for pubski one week about black guys. Damn if I didn't feel I had to run it past a black guy before feeling okay posting it. I completely fit the kind of person Reginald Hunter is describing and I felt better hearing him say "Good on you that you check yourself." I hope this is helpful.I know there was a pretty big post on race recently,
Yeah, there was, and that definitely showed how the line is all over the place.
The first two points pretty much hit the nail on the head as far as I can see. Your third point is interesting, although I don't think it's something people generally think about, so I don't think it's a factor when we're trying to figure out why it is that we're so squeamish about race. People love putting other people into little boxes, essentially condensing them down to a few characteristics. It makes them easier to sort through and think about, as well as giving us other people to compare them to. There was a woman speaking at my university for Women's Week. She was talking about racism and struggles of black people in modern day Ireland, but when she was about to say "black people" she stopped, choked up, and said "persons of colour" instead. I think to most people, describing anybody as "black" or "brown" isn't a problem. In fact, as a brown guy "person of colour" sounds a little bit silly. I think it's purely people's fear of being racist. Reginald D Hunter did a pretty funny piece about this phenomenon. I don't know about anyone else, but from my own experience I found that white people become offended more easily than others about race jokes even when those jokes aren't about white people. For example, I grew up abroad in a very international school (over 77 different nationalities if I remember correctly). People were constantly taking the piss out of each other for their race. When I moved back here to Ireland though, I remember jokingly calling myself a walking Asian stereotype (really good at math, plays piano, lightweight drinker, can't eat anything without rice, etc.) and the (white Irish) person I was talking to saying "That isn't funny, that's racist" and walking away. In general though, I have found that type of person to be a very, very vocal minority, which I think gives the impression that it's the general narrative at the moment. I for one am not planning on losing any sleep about it.
People sometimes do silly things to compensate for, and sometimes even overcompensate for, White Guilt.I don't know about anyone else, but from my own experience I found that white people become offended more easily than others about race jokes even when those jokes aren't about white people.
Funny to me how many links in this conversation are pointing to comedy bits. Here's an old (1969) white-guilt piece, from The National Lampoon and Christopher Guest :