Is being called “black” and “white” offensive?
Is America still on the “afro-american” and “caucasian” kick?
Is describing skin tone as “light” to “light brown” to “dark brown” to “dark” too weird?
Just had a little debate with a white guy who asked whether or not we could use “yellow” to describe skin tone. Obviously not, I thought, since the usage of “yellow” is usually derogatory. If not, replied the white guy, then we shouldn’t use “black” or “white” either.
Hmmm…
When I grew up in the UK I was told by my black friends to call them Black. Coloured was more offensive and of course English people cannot be afro Americans. Would Afro-Caucasians work better? Hmm I wonder.
Think I’ll stick to Black and White. BTW how many Chinese folk’s skin have you actually found to be yellow in colour? Most of them are whiter than me…esp the women.
On a side note Yellow must be acceptable as their Blue films are actually called Yellow films which must surely be a reference to skin colour.
[quote=“Edgar Allen”]
On a side note Yellow must be acceptable as their Blue films are actually called Yellow films which must surely be a reference to skin colour.[/quote]
Mummy… what’s a BLUE film?
If you asked Auntie Iris she would probably tell you it is a film with naked scottish folk in it. They all have blue skin as a result of the cold weather up there.
[quote=“Sinister Tiddlywinks”]Is being called “black” and “white” offensive?
Is America still on the “afro-American” and “caucasian” kick?
Is describing skin tone as “light” to “light brown” to “dark brown” to “dark” too weird?
Just had a little debate with a white guy who asked whether or not we could use “yellow” to describe skin tone. Obviously not, I thought, since the usage of “yellow” is usually derogatory. If not, replied the white guy, then we shouldn’t use “black” or “white” either.
Hmmm…[/quote]
The problem is that “yellow” has an additional meaning: “cowardly”.
It only means cowardly in America. I assume that Yellow in Chinese probably has positive connotations. Remember that in Africa White is the colour of death and thus you could say that white is offensive but it falls outside of your cultural norms so you don’t see it that way.
Turn this into a cooking class. Bring in different ingredients like chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, cinnamon, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, peanut butter, applesauce, and butter and have pictures of kids of different races. Let the kids try to match the kids’ skin colors to the foods. Let them sample a little bit of each food. Then make cookies with the ingredients to teach them that by working together, you can create something wonderful. You can even ask them, “Can you make cookies with only chocolate? Peanut butter?”, “Could you make a cookie with only one of the ingredients? By keeping the ingredients separate?”, and “What are some good things we can make as people by working together?”
Later you can also ask them if any of the people are white (use a white piece of paper), yellow (a yellow one), or black (a black one). Tell them that we use these terms to make it easier to describe someone’s skin color, but as they could see from your cooking experiment, that people come in as many different colors as there are foods. And that while they each have their own “flavor”, they taste the best when they work together to create something.
Just a thought.
Good answer, ImaniOU. Hope I can live up to it.
:bravo: :bravo:
You got that cooking idea from the Cuban beans & rice dish, right?
Nope, pulled that straight out of my ass, thank you.
I hope that this doesn’t turn into something more than finding PC adjectives to describe people. 
I personally don’t care what I’m called as long as it’s not derogatory. I would love to be just called American, but because we need our little boxes, I don’t mind using African American or Black(not of African descent).
Hi you American!
Don’t call me purple, pinky!
Nope, pulled that straight out of my ass, thank you.[/quote]
Good brain-fart, ImaniOU!
The Cuban dish is “moros y cristianos”: black beans and white rice. Yummy! It’s like, the culinary symbol of Cuban racial harmony.
Some more information on “yellow”. In Taiwanese culture when someone is being “yellow”, they are being a pervert.
For example, students saying: “Look at teacher’s butt in those pants!” I replying: “You are so yellow!” OR student saing: “Danny is gay.” I replying: “Don’t be yellow in class!”
(I hope ya’all get the idea!!)
There is no such thing as “Cuban racial harmony”. Its a fact: the lighter your skin color is in Cuba, the higher of a social class you will belong to. Don’t ask me for proof, research it for yourself.
Somebody throw a condom-balloon at this guy, please.
I mean mostly the lower classes; the middle classes both black and white. Money divides people in all societies no matter what kinds of social strata exist.
I’m not denying that there’s no… Oh, whatever, la la la, bla bla bla…
I’m not gonna get into a dumb racism debate unless you have a condom-balloon.
Nope, pulled that straight out of my ass, thank you.[/quote]
Reminds me of a comment made by the EU which went “the Europeans can’t even agree on the colour of shit, never mind [whatever it was at the time…]”
Funny the way poo is all different colours, too, isn’t it?
Lord Lucan, aged 5¾
Well, an alternative to ImaniOU’s idea would be to observe different specimens of crap with the students. Some bowel movements are “brown”, others might be “tawny” or “auburn”. Still others might be “dusky” or “chestnut”. Others may be “rosy” or “salmon”, whilst others are “raven” or even “sable”. But still, they are all crap.
Speaking of pc, I note that it has been suggested in Europe/NA/Aus/…that the the term “skin-colored” should not be used in referring to pinkish hues.
So what colour is ‘pi-fu-se’?