Re: "The blacks" -- It's Debateable

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Subject: Re: "The blacks"

Author:
Siannach

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Date Posted: 20:34:06 10/01/02 Tue
In reply to: Alan 's message, "Re: "The blacks"" on 06:47:07 09/29/02 Sun

I think basically to label "them" as anything is coming from a racially segregating standpoint. For a black person to say "I'm black" is fine. But for a non-black person to refer to a group of people based only on their dark skin colour is racist in and of itself, really. I find the term
"Blacks" a bit unnerving--sounds derogatory and stereotypical to me. If you are using 'black' as a descriptor to identify yourself as a member of a cultural group, then its ok. I event think its probably ok to use "black" as a benign descriptor. Who left their purse here? Oh, the black lady with the purple spandex pants.

Someone earlier in the thread asked what Canadian news media referred to black Canadians as. I can't recall ever hearing anything like that. I think they just would refer to them by their names, titles, or whatever. Like anyone else. But then our black population is not really comparable to the population in the US. We call our "native indians" Natives or aboriginals, or even first nations, if they are being discussed as a cultural group. But certainly never if they are in the news as individuals (except in a case like Joe Beaver is the head of the First Nations Tribal Coucil).

And anyhow, I think even if we did all end up the same colour we'd find plenty of other ways to classify and separate ourselves. As we do now within our "colour groups".

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