Re: Now I've learned my ABC's
> ACTUALLY, the VERY SIMPLE main point, which you seemed to miss,
> is that if you're going to label someone with a word to describe
> their skin color then you should use an ACTUAL decription.
> Regardless of the racist few, negative connotations exist in
> society in terms of race. And, continuing to use the very words
> that put those connations into place is a very pacifist way to
> live. I'm glad that most choose not to today. But, I'll refrain
> from going off on an extreme tangent like you do.
> The point that I made, is short and sweet, and best illustrated
> with a question....So, what do you call a man who looks
> "black" but isn't (culturally)? If you want to term
> "black" as a culture itself, then it's unfair to the
> person if you lump him into it. And, don't tell me that you can
> spot all cultures and distinguish between them at a glance.
> THEREFORE, if you're going to make a description call on someone
> without knowing their background .....(everyone) USE A REAL
> DESCRIPTION.
we all see the world in ideas and images, and what is language but ideas, and it is impossible to compeletly do away with the categorisation of people, animals and objects. just try it and you'll see what i mean.
under your ideas it would be impossible to categorise anything. to use an actual description you would have to meet an actual person. if i wanted to refer to the french people,for instance, i would have to meet sixty million actual people and try to find a common trait in them and then, and only then, could i describe the french people; it would be impossible. surly i could describe the french as being french, as speaking the french language - their may be different accents and dialects amongst it - but it would still be legitimte to refer to it as the french language. but it would be illegitimate to describe the french as garlic smelling wine drinkers,and then lumping sixty million people under that concept; that would be a false categorisation. so surely refering to black people as black is a true categoristion. black people seem to have very little problem with it. i'm sure most of them if asked, would say they are proud to be black.
as i said in a earlier post, we have to use language responsibly and when categorising things, especially people, we must do it carefully.
for a good example of false categorising read lucretia's post to this thread: it is idealogically loaded and prejudiced.