do you think we should refer to race by color or political correctness?

Question

In my opinion, if we are going to reference race, i think it should be done by color. Because "political correctness" is almost a stereotype in itself. plus does anyone know what caucasian means? it comes from the caucasian mountiain range which means "beautiful and superiour" my source is my diversity class im taking. Plus one of my classmates parents are from africa, but they are all white. so i just think we should go by color, but what do you think?

And by the way, if you are just going to go on and on about why we shouldn't even consider race and crap like that, then don't bother posting here because thats not the question, and i don't care

may i make the point again, if you are going to give me some crap like "there is only one race; the human race" don't post, it doesn't answer the question, also to the "brainwashing they are doing to kids these days" comment given below, I'm an education major, so it is important to have teachers that are not racially bias

don't over complicate this people, im not asking for a definition on race, im simply asking should we go by the "politically correct" or color, No ones getting a prize for who sounds the smartest

Answer 1

no way political correctness should be the basis of race. politics are man-made, which means that since we are all equal, no one can be absolutely right or wrong. but color, when you say that a chick is black, or white, or red head, or asian, no one's gonna contest that. did i say it in an understanding way?

Answer 2

I prefer being called "white" rather than "Caucasian" and it makes more sense to me to call people "black" rather than "African American". I just don't think it makes sense to name an entire race after a place that only a tiny part of it has even been to. I've never been to the Caucasians and my ancestors from at least 1100 years back didn't either. Few blacks have been to both Africa and America and neither did their recent ancestors and yet they are named after both.

I think "black" and "white" are simpler and I don't see anything wrong or insulting about those terms anyway so I don't see why they need to be replaced with more politically correct ones.

Even though I've never seen a black who is really black (they're brown) or a white who is really white (we're pink), those terms have been used for so long and I think it would be good to continue using them. And they can be used on a global level too. Calling a black British "African American" just doesn't make sense.

Answer 3

I think that the colour should be the basis of definitions, if we go the PC route then whats OK this month / year could upset some one else down the road and it would then have to be changed to keep up with the current view of thinking.

Nope did not know that about Caucasians, dont buy into it my self but another bit of trivia for me

And I also agree that from what I have been told a lot of African Americans MUCH prefer to be called black.............my husband most certainly does..........he is about as close to Africa as I am to being an Eskimo

Answer 4

I dont kno I mean I dont mind being called black even tho my skin color is not actually black. I will call a white person white. I hate sometimes when someone trys to be politically correct it seems like they are trying to hard. I didnt come from africa someone way down my family tree did. but someone in my family tree comes from Scottland too, and France, and Jamaica so what would u call me now? A comic once asked why is it that all the minorities are only half american? Like mexican-american, african-american, asian-american ect.... while "caucasians are usually just american. Can't we all just be american? we are all human each race has its good and bad...... yea right like it would ever be like that man just call me black and we are str8.

Answer 5

I think the best thing to do is generalize everything, like call people white, black, asian, latino, etc. When you start getting into specifics like countries/regions it gets complicated... For example if you called a person from Scotland English, they'd get mad because yes they're in Britain but aren't English. Or if you called a Chinese person Japanese, they might be offended because of the conflicts they've had in the past, etc. Usually I generalize when I'm talking to people and they end up saying I'm French or whatever they are. Sorry if that sounded stupid but I couldn't really explain my point.

Answer 6

I was actually told by some black people that I know that they personally prefer to be called black. It simplifies things. Especially since one of them is descended from Cajun people in Louisiana as well as being black. There's a fair amount of French in her ancestry as well, so African-American doesn't really cover it. They also told me that they--being born in America of generations of people also born here--don't feel any loyalty to any of the African nations, so don't feel they need to be called African-Americans. The problem I have, is that whoever came up with this whole black/white thing must have been a little weak on his color identification. I have yet to see a human being who is actually black, white, red or yellow.

And there is not only one race. Scientifically, there is only one species, but there are several races. Race is considered on the same level as a breed in other animals.

Answer 7

Race is a characteristic that often needs to be described.

Using existing and well known terms such as 'caucasian' or 'african-american' or 'asian' is efficient. In that you don't need to explain what it means.

Language often evolve out of de facto use rather than a 'system' that is ideal. The same argument can be applied to animals. Do you want to go around and call animals by their scientific name so that you are 'accurate'? or do you just call a turkey a turkey out of convenience?

Answer 8

Eurogenic, Afrogenic, Sinogenic. that takes care of 3 racial groups.

then we have Indogenic, that's 4. What "______genic' can we call the Native Americans? The Aborigines, the Pacific Islanders?

Answer 9

We should just call each other Units. He is a foreign unit, or a domestic unit. She is a diversified unit (meaning mixed race or colored). Of course it would be wrong to seperate the sexes, wouldn't it?

Answer 10

First of all you don't get to set up rules for answering questions you post and frankly I don't care that you don't care.

Who cares what they are called as long as it isn't derogatory.

Reread your question and comments - it oozes with arrogance.