The definition of racism;

[sinewav]

One of my friends told me a story of a co-worker. He was a white gentleman from South Africa who came here on a visa (and he was a bit green as you'll read in a second). He applied for several jobs through different agencies, and on each application he selected "African American," not knowing the context. So one day he shows up for a job that was supposed to be for "minorities" and the contractor loses his shit on the guy for being white. Then, after hearing the definition of African American from the contractor, he proceeds to bust out laughing and says "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I'm FROM Africa. You guys are insane here."

I have to admit, it think the term in ridiculous. You're just American. No prefix. Then again, I'm against the existence of any "protected classes" since that's legal racism in my book.

[Lucifer]

Protected classes are there to counter the tyranny of the mob. This country tried it without protected classes for 100 years and it didn't work.

[boobert]

I have to agree that African is not a skin color. I hear black people sometimes say things like "I'm not black, I'm Indian/Spanish.." blah blah. Seems silly to me. If you're black, I don't see how some invisible border we invented along the way and drew on a map has any effect on that. Crazy cultural nationalism! (maybe there's a better word for it than something I made up)

Kinda adding to what owned and others have said: Unless anyone truly believes that Adam and Eve ate forbidden apples ( ) and that's why we're here, chances are you've heard and even agree with the train of thought that, ultimately, we are all of African descent. So if we're going to argue history maybe some parameters should be set first.

lol @ sine's story.

[Jonathan]

"Black" isn't usually black anyway.

African is a skin color, kinda. Of the people (and their parents etc.) who've lived there for long enough to get that color.

[Titanoboa]

One teacher of mine told an interesting story* of when he had been to Africa, in a village on the east coast (forgot which country). He spoke to a villager who was getting ready for a trip to somewhere on the west coast, and he was very excited because apparently he had never seen a black person before.

*of which I've obviously forgotten 90% of the details. Might even have messed up west vs. east.

We fair skinned might think of indians or all africans as black, while they view it from a different perspective. And if we're gonna be objective about it.. I've never seen a pitch black person.

[boobert]

I've never seen a pitch black person.

How about Wesley Snipes?

I should clarify that I don't consider all Indians to be black. However, there are some very dark Indian people. These are the ones that say they are Indian and not black. My mind is boggled. There are a lot of different skin tones coming out of India and they are some of the most racist people I've met. Northern Indians and southerners often hate each other and it is largely based on skin tone. Indians in my area also say nigga and the like way more than any black people I've met. If you are a woman in India you're chances of being found attractive and married are significantly increased if you have lighter skin. Some Indian racists give white racists a run for their money.

Africa also has a lot of color disparity throughout which is why I can't see it as a skin color. Some countries to consider: Egypt, Morocco, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago. You don't have to be African to be black or vice versa. I agree that really no one is black, or white for that matter, but I think it's a for-sake-of-argument thing in this case.

Lucifer, in case you've never seen this and have 25 minutes to spare , it's a funny episode of South Park and something to think about. Homophobia is a problem but I don't think people's use of the words "gay" and "***" to describe something/someone disparagingly are necessarily all directed at gays. (At least around me, and I'm kind of assuming the midwest and across(ish) the country to an extent based on this stuff)

http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1312/

oh and some Limbaugh stuff for Phyto and whoever is interested. Is this funny or just plain infuriating?

http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mc ... gh-quotes/

[Phytotron]

Well, this thread turned rather ridiculous in the last page. Too much for even me to dissect.

[apparition]

Is it just me or did anyone else get the feeling that this was just a ridiculous thread with a bunch of white people talking about black people? Not to devalue some of the interesting comments that were made, but seriously...

[Lord Pein]

I wouldn't use the word ridiculous, and you are incorrect, Dubstep is black. Why would you bother bringing it up?

Question: Why does terminology matter so much? I have always referred to myself, and other black people as black/african american. That is usually the option I chose if I am asked for my race on any application or form. I have no idea what country my blood relatives are from and it is probably next to impossible to find out, not worth all the trouble to find out just so I can check the box that says "other" and write in "Zimbabwe-Nigerian"

[Lucifer]

Terminology matters. During one of the world wars (probably the first, recycled for the second), the US picked up kraut as a slur for German. If we continued to call Germans krauts, saying terminology doesn't matter, we'd be reminding our allies that we haven't always been on good terms every time we talked about/to them.

Personally, the politically correct word that really bugs me is "latino". I usually want to read that as referring to French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian, etc. But the people it's supposed to refer to are descendants of Spanish and Portuguese colonists who did some particularly nasty things in the Americas. It explicitly doesn't include Cajuns, or other French descendants in America. So it's misleading. I'll take and use Hispanic, knowing it doesn't include Brazilians, and I'll go with Latin-American, referring to Latin America (e.g. everything south of Utah/Colorado/Kansas).

In general, however, I prefer to just refer to Americans as Americans. I prefer not to refer to myself as Caucasian, because I'm mixed enough and know enough history to know that I have non-caucasian ancestors. I'll go with white, but only in the summer months, and usually only when I can contrast that with one of the politically correct terms (in which case I'm pointing out that there isn't a politically correct term that I'm willing to accept for myself).

And having grown up in the southwest, my own family's culture includes quite a few hispanic elements, so it can be tricky for me to try to even categorize my family's culture. We're American, and we've adopted or been handed down cultural elements from a lot of different ethnicities and cultures.

[Lord Pein]

Question: Why does terminology matter so much?

Terminology matters; but not always to such an extreme extent.

[apparition]

I wouldn't use the word ridiculous, and you are incorrect, Dubstep is black. Why would you bother bringing it up?

I didn't say it was exclusively white people posting here, but it is ridiculous because if you read carefully, you'll realize it is a discussion for naive white people. I'm not saying the people posting here are naive white people (that would be stupid, and I trust everyone on this thread is smart and has a healthy view of race)... I'm just saying the discussion itself is ridiculous.

[Lord Pein]

Interesting, I understand, but disagree.

[gawdzilla]

How is enlightening others ridiculous? It's not like this thread is full of stereotyping and idiot hicks.

Appa, you're not even black LOL.

[Hoax]

Is it just me or did anyone else get the feeling that this was just a ridiculous thread with a bunch of white people talking about black people? Not to devalue some of the interesting comments that were made, but seriously...

Didn't you used to go around pretending to be black when you were in tr