I’ve come to notice through a lot of experiences in my life, that a number of people i talk to (predomantly out of this group, those who are white) seem to be incredibly reluctant to use a phrase to describe anothers race.
I’m not talking about just words that are found offensive, I mean any at all.
At my workplace, for example, My white female co-worker came up to me and told me about someone who she believed was shop-lifting. she decribed there clothing, there hair, and there age, but I couldn’t get a clear picture.
‘what race?’ I said
she stammered a bit, trying to find the correct word to say ‘umm, shes… shes african-american’
I pretended to pay it no mind and told her I’d keep an eye out. but then the officer of our store came over to talk to me about the same women. ‘that women that -your coworker- told you about, has she come over here yet?’ ‘you mean the african american women?’ I asked
‘yeah the black one.’ he said non-chalantly
I was a bit taken back. Is it just because he’s of a different ethnicity then white as well that he can say ‘black’ without so much as a second thought? I wanted to ask him something along those lines, but it wasn’t my place, so i refrained.
I’ve noticed this in our own classroom too, people have stuttered uttering the words black or brown, indian, hispanic, ‘red’ , ‘yellow’, african-american, middle-eastern, and so on. Even I’v e noticed myself doing it.
In my mind I believe this comes from conditioning to feel a certain way. it feels as if our education has brought whites specifically up to be ashamed of how WE treated everyone else, when in all reality, each of us isn’t to blame, it’s the people that came before us.
all in all it’s a tricky thing to talk about, but I just wanted to bring it to light. I try not to stammer any more, but I also refrain from saying certain words because the language is different from one ethnicity to another, if you catch my meaning (I hope you do.)
FA12-FYE106.01 