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beargonewild -> RE: Ethnicity (10/6/2008 6:07:21 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Daddysredhead
Straight from my journal:
I believe that the term "African American" is absolutely stupid unless the person is a foreign national from Africa. Black people don't have a problem with the term "black," so why should white people? And it's ok to say "white" people, too.
The whole idea of "uber political correctness" that permeates the United States has gotten totally out of hand. People are afraid of saying anything that will make them look racist. The HR lady where I used to work told me that I appeared racist because I said that foreign people were my buddies. I stared her dead in the face, picked up my name plate, pointed out my last name (I kept my married name), and said "Do you see that? I was married to a guy from overseas for 13 years, lived overseas and was a minority there, and I've been dating a black man for years. If you think I have any racist tendencies, you need to have your head checked," and slammed my name plate on the desk. She didn't know what to do, so she just shut her gaping jaw and walked away.
I never had a problem with being referred to as a foreigner when I was overseas because, you know what? I was one. I wasn't a native, I was from a foreign country when I was visiting them.
We've gotten to be such pussies about "hurting the feelings" of anyone at all, that we've checked our collective brain at the door.
Daddy is black, I'm white (day-glo, some might say, LOL), and we talk about things in terms of color all the time. Some of our funniest discussions start with "Why do white folks..." or "You know, black folks..." because they are funny generalizations or observations that we've made about the other person's race. My ex-husband and I did the same thing. It was all about people watching and learning the why's of the things people did.
I hear what your saying Red. Where I live, there's a large population of aboriginals and the general consensus from them is they prefer to be referred to as natives. Quite often I'll make a smart remark about myself as being a crazy white man to which I do get some strange looks until they see the humor in what I said. I will make comments about the French and also about the Irish. Since I am a mixture from both cultures it isn't as racially volatile as me making a not so nice comment about South Africans or Europeans.
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