Threadjacking!

[Spaceghost]

I never said I was trying to "ban" anyone from anything. Don't go Daily Mail on me Shark!

I merely said I was trying to encourage my children to see a person's defining traits in greater terms than their race or colour.

[Daveycandlish]

But am I still okay to call someone a boss-eyed ginger gimp with a limp?

[Goaty]

I get it worse at schools and in streets with "Deaf twat" or "Deaf and Dumb" as deaf people hated that word!

[M.I.K.]

If someone in a group has an obvious difference to the others in that group, I don't see how it's demeaning to immediately go to it to describe them as long as it's not in obviously insulting terms. If I say "the black one" or "the white one", I'm no more defining their entire persona than if I were to call them "the bearded one" or "the tall one".

I've actually caught myself referring to someone as "the Scottish bloke" before, when talking to Scottish people, in Scotland, while being Scottish.

[Hawkmumbler]

Sharky. The key difference between "black" and "white" people is the fact that the former has been subject to hate crime, enslavement and political scapegoating for centuries. Still think ot isn't an issue? Look to Ferguson.

[TordelBack]

I'll just point out that saying "the black guy over there" no more reduces a person to nothing more than their  skin colour than saying "the guy in the red coat" reduces that person to their choice in clothing.

The distinction might be made that the red coat is a choice - but you do make a good point.  It's the pejorative connotation that's the issue (as with ginger, gay, fat), and the ghastly historical and contemporary association - once that goes away it's just another descriptor.  Although as my wee daughter is wont to point out when asked who various of her friends are, she doesn't know any black kids - plenty of ones with lovely brown skin though. 

[The Legendary Shark]

Sorry, Spaceghost, I wasn't having a go at you or accusing you of anything and I am absolutely and breathtakingly unqualified to criticise anybody's parenting technique. If I gave that impression then I unreservedly apologise. This is just a subject that gets right up my nose, is all. (And why the mods usually keep me chained up with a bucket of fish heads in the Political Thread.)
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Hawkmonger - subjection to slavery, hate crimes and political scapegoating is in no way the exclusive preserve of any race - just ask the Boers, the Jews, the Gypsies, the Chinese, Muslims, Christians, etc., etc., etc. I would suggest that by claiming otherwise you are, unknowingly of course, perpetuating the myth that the Only Thing in black culture or history with any relevance is slavery and such. There's a lot, lot more to it than that.
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Heh, Tordels, that wee lass of yours has the right idea. You rarely see racist kiddies, in my experience.

[Hawkmumbler]

Sharkey, when a person say's "I'm Black and proud" they're standing up against the white shit bag's that try to oppress them. Saying "I' white and proud" make's you sound like a privaliged tit because you have never felt oppresion.

[Satanist]

This actually occurred in my work where a lady had to go see a guy in another dept. She knew his name but not appearance. Loads of people trying to explain that he was 2 rows behind the photocopier, sits near the water cooler etc until someone piped up that he was the only black guy in that room. Is that racist or just common sense?

[The Legendary Shark]

No. I have never felt oppression. :-/
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Just to be clear, I've never been proud of my skin colour and neither have I ever despised it. It just happens to be the colour of bag I was given to keep my organs in which are, so I'm led to understand, the same colour as everyone else's.
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My point, which you so eloquently just made for me, reduces whole swathes of people to caricatures: black = oppressed, abused slaves. White = oppressive, abusive slavers. Never mind the facts that in many parts of Africa black tribes regularly raided other black tribes to capture slaves and that many white people abhorred and opposed slavery even when it was legal.
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This is why I despise political correctness, it stifles debate by limiting vocabularies and topics, subdues thought by homogenising everyone and encourages the acceptance of biased racial and individual paradigms. To me, political correctness is more insidious than any racist joke. I'd rather watch a dvd of Bernard Manning than a dvd of David Cameron any day of the week.
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Being respectful to people shouldn't mean ignoring the myriad aspects that make them who they are. Being respectful to people, in my opinion, is about being honest and refraining from chopping each other up.

[Spikes]

Hear, hear.


Apart from the Bernard Manning bit. 

[Hawkmumbler]

Your argument ignores the conflict present today though. When white police officers can get away with murdering a young black man because of a stereotype that he's a gang member, then formulate a intricate lie to support his statement, then society has a problem.

[The Legendary Shark]

White police officers get away with murdering people of all colours (as do white soldiers, but to a much higher degree). The media focuses on the black ones because that focus is dramatic and pulls in audiences.
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There are plenty of police officers, of virtually every race, who never killed anybody and wouldn't want to. Once again, by focusing on the white v black aspect of a much wider problem, political correctness skews our perceptions and makes everything seem so, well, so black and white, if you'll forgive the pun.

[Molch-R]

Please transfer this discussion to the Political Thread, which is where it belongs. Thank you.

[The Legendary Shark]

Threadist...
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But you're correct, of course. Sorry - that was my fault.
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