• NeilNuggetstrong@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Can someone please explain? I’ve been told I’m supposed to refer to black people as people of color, or people with dark skin.

    • snooggums@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      One outs the color first and has been used by racists for centuries. The other comes from the community and puts the fact that they are a person first.

      Without the history of slavery and continued oppression it wouldn’t matter, which is why ‘white people’ is not derogatory on its own.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thank you for this very concise yet perfectly descriptive explanation, I was a bit confused as a non American about the difference.

        • snooggums@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          It goes along with the vast majority of white people In America just not believing how bad the racism was and still is. Like when I was younger in a 90+% white city I had a hard time wrapping my head around racism still being a thing decades after the Civil rights movement. As I got older and saw just how ingrained racism is in society and how willfully ignorant most people are about things they have not experienced.

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I live in Denmark, in the 70’s I thought racism was a thing of the past, and would disappear with the older generations. But oh boy, I never imagined how backwards uninformed people can be.

            We had very few problems with racism back then, and as a nation we took pride in for instance never having had slaves, and helping the Jewish population during WW2. So I actually thought we had a culture that was against racism. Unfortunately racism has increased I’d say almost exponentially with emigrants and refugees coming here.

            Regarding USA, when I saw for instance Star Trek TOS, I thought that was perfectly normal, I had no idea until 20 years later, that it was extremely progressive for its time! We should strive to be more like Star Trek.