quote:
Racism isn't about the dividing people into groups, it's about the judging people based on what group they happen to be in.
It's both.
I just call black people "black". (If I'm describing the black person to somebody else, that is... If I'm talking to them, they know they're black.) Like, say, if Ike - a Grammy Award winning drummer and a friend of mine who is quite black - asks of me at a gig: "You seen my crew?" "I dunno, Ike.. couple of black dudes, a white dude and some black chick?" "Yeah, where'd they go?" "I think they checked into their rooms already." "Thanks."
See... that's a normal exchange. It's a very handy and fast way to describe people so as to differentiate them from white people in a crowd. It works both ways: "Hey, Ike.. is that your new guitar player?" "Skinny white guy?" "Yeah." "He's the new guy, yeah."
We have now handily put the guitar player into the "white guy" visual cue category and can ascertain his whereabouts more quickly my mentally checking the black people in the room off of the list.
If you are talking to somebody who is a different colour than you are -and I send this out to everybody, black, white, yellow, brown - they KNOW what colour they are. It's not required to use those deliniations anymore. So talk TO them. Don't talk AT them. You might meet a really nice person. Or a complete moron. Welcome to America.
