Is it PC to say "black"?

Tar.Aldarion · 09-06-2007 04:59PM

I regularly call my friend black. Why?

Tar.Aldarion · 09-06-2007 04:59PM

I regularly call my friend black. Why?

zuutroy · 09-06-2007 05:10PM

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I regularly call my friend black. Why?

Is is name Mr. Black?

Oracle · 09-06-2007 05:14PM

I think this whole area of language has gone crazy, PC extremism has caused the ultimate abuse of language. It's this; who is saying something is more important than what they are saying. A good example is on the first page of this thread, the OP was asked if they were white. Also the way you say something, (i.e the particular terminology you use), is more important than getting a message across and communicating. It's a sad and disappointing development in the use of English.

Gran Hermano · 09-06-2007 05:44PM

Slow coach wrote:

Yes.

On topic again: What would you call the offspring of one black and one white parent?

And how about the offspring of the above and one white parent?
.

Mulatto (Spanish mulato, small mule, person of mixed race, mulatto, from mulo, mule, from Old Spanish, from Latin mūlus.) is a person of mixed black and white ancestry or the offspring of one white parent and one black parent or someone 50% black and 50% white or an adjective used to describe something as a light brown color.[1]

Scally07 · 09-06-2007 06:24PM

PC? Get over it, call them whatever you like. If they dont like it f**k them, I doubt there that concerned about what they call us.

mikemac · 09-06-2007 06:37PM

I don't see what the big deal is.

Listen to Jay Z or any number of rap artists that are extremly succesful and rich and they constantly say n!gger

I'm not saying we use language from rap songs in everyday conversations but I've never heard a complaint against a musician like this

Mossy Monk · 09-06-2007 06:43PM

To be fair, there is a lot of black people who hate the language used by some rappers.

Victor · 09-06-2007 07:11PM

cooperguy wrote:

It changes the whole time. I for one always just say black. African-American is the most ridicules PC phrase I know.

But look where it came from - "black", "negro" and "nigger" were all used as derogatory terms - enforced by guns and the nooses of lynch mobs. They simply came up with a term that didn't have a negative connotation.

You can have African-Americans that have never set foot in Africa, African-Americans that have never set foot in America and African-Americans who have never set foot in either country!!

Eh, continent?

cooperguy wrote:

I might aswell call myself a Swedish-American.

You can if you want. Many people identify themselves as Irish-Americans.

Dudess wrote:

Are white Americans ever referred to as "European Americans"?

WASPs, Paddies, Polaks .....

FX Meister · 09-06-2007 07:13PM

What's a wasp? Never heard that one.

mikemac · 09-06-2007 07:15PM

FX Meister wrote:

What's a wasp? Never heard that one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Anglo-Saxon_Protestant

Wikipedia reveals all

WASP is a term which originated in the United States. It is an acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
I suppose you could call them the elite

Victor · 09-06-2007 07:15PM

FX Meister wrote:

What's a wasp? Never heard that one.

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

oleras · 09-06-2007 07:23PM

I have a friend who was in New York a few weeks ago, he bumped into a black dude crossing the road and the black guy called him a "cracker"..... thats like him calling him n1gger, terrible word in that context.

And for those who dont know what cracker is, it refers to "whip cracker"

zuutroy · 09-06-2007 07:27PM

Reminds me of Die Hard 3 where Bruce Willis has to walk around Harlem with the 'I hate ****' sandwich board. Imagine having to do that!

Lazare · 10-06-2007 12:50AM

Calling someone 'black' is correct and shouldn't cause offence, but I was wondering, if the word 'negro' is so offensive... How do the Spanish get around it?

billy the squid · 10-06-2007 01:39AM

The Irish seem to have found a way around it. If you were to call someone Fear Dubh (sp) you would be insulting them because you would be calling them The Devil. but in Irish they refer to a black man as Fear Gorm, which directly translated would be Blue man :S

Hagar · 10-06-2007 08:49AM

There's a very good reason that a coloured person is called "fear gorm" in Irish.
I saw a documentary several years ago on TV about Irish history. It seems that in ancient times Irish sailors found their way to north Africa and encountered a native tribe, the Tuaregs , there who called themselves the Blue People. After that all dark skinned people were known as daoine gorm. Historians have found that the Blue People have legends of meeting with a red-haired sea faring race from the north so the story seems to be accurate.

Cake Fiend · 10-06-2007 09:00AM

Dudess wrote:

"Negro", which the OP used, is offensive.

I bet you're white.

Why does it always seem to be white people who 'decide' what's offensive to black people and what's not?

10-06-2007 10:00AM

Lazare wrote:

Calling someone 'black' is correct and shouldn't cause offence, but I was wondering, if the word 'negro' is so offensive... How do the Spanish get around it?

Quite simply because 'negro' is a natural word for the colour black in their language, unlike it's use in the english language which has a specific definition which some people find offensive.

flogen · 10-06-2007 01:00PM

Cake Fiend wrote:

I bet you're white.

Why does it always seem to be white people who 'decide' what's offensive to black people and what's not?

I don't think his post was a decree - it was an opinion.

10-06-2007 06:33PM

Steoob wrote:

hey, something i always wondered.. is it politcally correct to say "black" when discribing a person of negro origin? i was just watching the interview from emily from big brother where she said "i love my black friends" or something to that effect and i winched when she said it, as i always do when i hear someone say black... is it PC and if not what IS the correct term?

What else are you going to call them? Pretending they're not black is almost as bad as insulting them
if they're black they're black, no big deal

I'm sick of the americans calling people 'african american' if they've never been near africa in their lives, nor have their parents been

FX Meister · 10-06-2007 06:57PM

Have you read any of the posts in this thread except the first one?

Isn't it time this thread got locked?

10-06-2007 07:02PM

FX Meister wrote:

Have you read any of the posts in this thread except the first one?

after I wrote 'what else to call them?', yes

cooperguy · 10-06-2007 10:34PM

FX Meister wrote:

Sorry dude, you are wrong. African American refers to someone who is born in america but is of African origin. So they may never have set foot in Africa but they have set foot in America as they were born there. FACT. If I move to the US and have kids then they are Irish American.

So in regards to this thread, is it ok to make rascist remarks as long as you think it's funny? I'm surprised no one has said n!gger yet. That's far less racist than some of the terms already used here.

Nope. Most people I have heard say African-American are not refering to people of African origin just people that are black and only the other day I heard somebody talk about an "African-American" kid who had never set foot out of Ireland!!!

seamus · 11-06-2007 09:14AM

Listen people, you can only take offence, you can't give it.

Terms like "Cracker", "N|gger", "Wigger", "Half-caste", "Paki", "Chinky", all this crap are only offensive if you think they are.

If someone walking down the street called me a Cracker, Wigger or a Paddy, I wouldn't be in the least bit offended because I'm not in the least bit uncomfortable with who I am.

These words aren't offensive, regardless of how you paint it up. The only reason you get offended is because somebody has pointed out a section of your persona that you don't like.

I would have no problem calling an English friend, a "Brit ****er", no more than I would have a problem with him calling me a "****ing Paddy". So why is it offensive for a white girl to refer to her black friends as "****"? Or a black girl to call her white friends "Crackers"?

The only reason that I would say that "Coloured" is incorrect is because of the logical reasons. Black is the absence of colour. So by definition, "White" people are coloured, "black" people are not (let's not get pedantic here). So it's a term used by idiots who don't understand the nature of colour.

Tar.Aldarion · 11-06-2007 09:18AM

Black and white are both colours. You are thinking of light where black is the lack of colour/light.

As for the rest, I agree that something is only offensive if you think it is, and something is only degrading if you think it is etc.

seamus · 11-06-2007 09:34AM

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Black and white are both colours. You are thinking of light where black is the lack of colour/light.

Nope.

We could argue that one till the cows come home. If you have no light, how can you have colour?

Tar.Aldarion · 11-06-2007 09:41AM

If you can not see colour, it does not mean it is not there, much as if a tree in a forrest falls and nobody is there, there is still a soundwave.

I think it is quite simple, are my shoes currently a 'lack of colour' or are they a certain colour?

Colour in light and colour with dye etc are completely different things.

zuutroy · 11-06-2007 09:50AM

No they ain't. All colour is caused by the reflection and absorption characteristics of the atoms on which the light falls. Colour is just absence of certain parts of the white light spectrum due to atomic absorption.

Tar.Aldarion · 11-06-2007 09:58AM

zuutroy wrote:

No they ain't. All colour is caused by the reflection and absorption characteristics of the atoms on which the light falls. Colour is just absence of certain parts of the white light spectrum due to atomic absorption.

Black is the shade of an object that does not reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum. A black object absorbs all the colors of the visible spectrum and reflects none of them, Black is a colour to me, it is a pigment and therefore a colour, apart from when used in science and light.
In terms of Perception, Black like Greys and White, is an achromatic colour: a colour without hue and saturation.
If the term is intended to be Physical (physical and psychophysical concepts are often confused) and Black refers to a total absence of visible radiation (light) then, if there is no physical stimulus, there can be no physiological response.

Is it PC to say "black"?

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