“You realise that’s racist mum”

MaizieD

If blue eyes aren't a racial characteristic, which it seems that they aren't, then this whole discussion is irrelevant.

I did point this out earlier, but as we know people don’t bother to read all posts, or choose to disregard them.

As I understand it Racism is when a person is treated worse, excluded, disadvantaged, harassed, bullied, humiliated or degraded because of their race or ethnicity.
The use of words which denote colour in general like 'black' and 'white' have been taken totally out of context and applied to skin colour. This is ridiculous. They are colours, like green blue and purple. They can be used in all sorts of contexts. Relating skin colour to every mention of those words is the result of people becoming over-zealous in seeking out examples of racism. There are lots of things in the world which are black and white and they have nothing to do with race or skin colour.

Those ads for laundry powders which leave your sheets "white than white" weren't referring to the racial qualities of cotton. "Language that equates white as positive/ black as negative should be questioned as they contribute to unconscious bias." but the answer to that questioning can be, "No, this is not racist."

Turning clean bedding into racism would be overkill. Overkill is a bad thing, as it increases inter-racial tensions, it doesn't decrease them (armies carrying out revenge raids also increase the level of violence in a battle situation)

There are, of course, keyboard warriors who welcome and encourage those tensions, presumably because they think all-out warfare will lead to success in forcing the solution they desire. They are wrong, as shown by various attempts at genocide to remove populations considered "undesirable" for one reason or other.

This is a very dispiriting thread. Thank God for the young.

Away for lunch, it's more productive than trying to explain racism to the obdurate.

Here we go again. Unpicking every word, phrase or deed which could be construed as racist. I think all this is making the topic more divided than ever.

I do have a bit of experience, Alegrias

I have mixed raced, blue eyed GC. So Try telling them that only white people have blue eyes.

You are aware that what the Spanish word for black is I take it?

Should the young be allowed to change that? There are many comments about how wrong it is for people to use the word.

Below is an example of people wading in on a Mexican girl who had the audacity to call her dog, Black. In Spanish.

metro.co.uk/2018/01/22/people-want-spanish-word-black-changed-think-racist-7250021/

Just read a comment on the above article

Now I feel awkward when people ask me where I'm from, which is Negros Occidental, Philippines.

I'm afraid there are over-zealous people in the world as I said, who won't even allow the use of the word 'black' as a name! How about these idiots dealing with real racism instead of getting wound up by nonsense like this.

This phrase has nothing to do with race, the OD states “a person highly regarded by someone and treated with special favour”. So could apply to each and everyone one of us. Green eyed, brown eyed, hazel eyed.

Chestnut

I'm afraid there are over-zealous people in the world as I said, who won't even allow the use of the word 'black' as a name! How about these idiots dealing with real racism instead of getting wound up by nonsense like this.

Absolutely.

I know fine what the Spanish word for black is Gannygangan, no need to be quite so patronising.

I also know that there is a country in Africa called Niger, and there was something doing the rounds on the internet a while back about a student is the US who wrote that in a form as the country she came from and was told not to be racist. Ridiculous. People showing their ignorance. Its the name of the country, end of, its not racist.

All this faux outrage (my turn to say that) about everyone having blue eyes, can we not call things green any more...etc etc. I don't understand why people don't take the time to understand that calling someone a blue-eyed boy is harking back to the time when blue eyes and fair hair were seen as positive attributes worthy of praise. Blue eyes are not racist, for goodness sake, but associating a primarily caucasian feature with something to be praised is wrong.

Call me one of the PC brigade if you like. I'd rather be that than someone who doesn't care about other peoples' feelings.

By the way - the lunch we just had. It was padron peppers and DH had pata negra with his.

Referring to the OP, her son might have added that it’s also sexist! How many women/girls will never be (employer’s name) blue eyed boy?
(Waits for evidence citing number of blue-eyed girls having undergone gender reassignment, who might then achieve the blue-eyed boy status.)

Alegrias This is a very dispiriting thread. Thank God for the young

Away for lunch, it's more productive than trying to explain racism to the obdurate

Who needs the young when we have the ultra pc oldies on GN trying to stay down with the kids, competing to flash their woke credentials?

As for describing those with a different viewpoint as obdurate? More condescension from one who really doesn’t know better.

It’s worth noting that after that post you had the cheek to accuse someone of being patronising to you. Maybe a little more “do as you would be done by” eh?

By the way - the lunch we just had. It was padron peppers and DH had pata negra with his

Just this!

Irony is lost on some, isn't it?

EllanVannin

If anything was getting out of hand it's this colour business. Total madness !

I agree. Total madness.

White trash isn’t very nice and neither is whitey. Or white ghosts as some call white people. Racism isn’t confined to any particular race ,never forget that. It crosses all types.

I grew up near Liverpool when dockers had to stand in a pen early in the morning and somehow hope to catch the foreman's eye to get a half days work. Anyone suspected of using 'means' to get picked was a 'blue eyed boy' - it was NOT a compliment. I don't think there was a racist aspect unless it was anti white, implying that the good lookin fella wheedles his way in where the decent man cannot. This system continued until 1967. A recent part of our history.

Alegrias The people affected are those with skin that isn't pinky beige. If they were happy with the n word then we would still be using it and why not? but they are not - and with very good reason - But it is not for us to dictate to others what they should be called. We just smugly show our antiracism by discussing these topics in the way we do.

How do you know that the people discussing anti-racism on here have pinky beige skin?

Bit of an assumption, there.

As 90% of the world’s population have brown eyes, the term might have arisen around the rarity of blue eyes against brown. Anything rare is automatically accorded more attention.
But what about that nice song ‘Brown eyed girl”? A compliment yes?

Never quite understood how blackboards, written on with white chalk, was offensive whilst whiteboards written on with black pen are not.
Of the 5 closest Afro-Caribbean friends I have, it’s hard to find a consensus for how they would like to be referred to, though they all define me as white.

How should I look to ''you don't look it' on asked my age .?

I'd think the person saying it was trying to ingratiate themselves with me, and then I'd give them the address of Specsavers.

It’s obvious that some people would sneer at the idea that there is such a thing as “ unconscious bias”, that anyone who is anti racist can be denigrated as “ woke” - shock horror.