Obama's wife says something interesting

[Nishin]

Alright...allow me to put it this way:

If -I- (a young, white male...I have some Native American and possibly even a little African [slave] ancestry, but if you look at my pictures, it's not noticible, so we'll ignore that for now.) If -I- was to go on national television and say that Osama's wife shouldn't worry since at any time, her husband, being a black man, could be shot going to the gas station...do you not think that people all over the nation (at least media types, and probably the NAACP) would be all over me for being a racist?
[...]
However, by the popular difinition, that would be a racist statement if a non-black person was to say it, would you not conceed that point? It might not be a racist statement by definition, but it would be construed as one.

I guess some people might be, and maybe most media might be all over you, the latter are not especially known for having a taste for accuracy...
As a non-white person I personally wouldn't be offended or see racism in your comment.

Although you make the point of "racial sensitivity" which is to be taken into account when making such statements to an audience one is not familiar/intimate with.
I mean if there is a possibility that your statement willy be misinterpreted, and you don't want that to happen, it's just common sense to be precise enough to make it clear what you mean is...

Which brings me to the point already mentioned of the PC "afro-american" which was supposedly introduced to avoid such situation... and which I find stupid for skin colour is NO indication of one's nationality. "Afro-americans" are ... Americans, that's it. If one wants to refer to their decendency or skin colour, just say black, nothing prejudicial in that, let's call a cat a cat.
Context and tone will usually make it clear what the intentions are.

Discussing this before, I found out some black Americans actually prefer to be referred to as "Afro-Americans"... I fail to understand that, to me it's really a matter of over-sensitivity in this case... I was showing a picture of a black and a white guy to that friend of mine and asked him to describe what he saw, to which he answered: "a white guy and an Afro-American" ... so hmm how come people who use the term "afro-american" don't also say "euro-american" ??
Btw, the black guy in the pic was from Senegal... so yeah...huh... and even with that proof that saying "black" was just the most accurate thing to say my friend still prefered his "afro-american" non-sense... go figure.

Anyhow, I'm not sure if this is a concession... so take it as you like. My only point being that although people interpret things as they're inclined to, due to whatever bias or reason, analize and context will determinate the intent of what's being said. People just need to be more precise and less misplacingly susceptible...

You're right, Nishin, by the definition, she is not a racist.

Actually I only said the statement she made wasn't racist... I don't know about her , she could very well be, who knows, just wasn't explicit or implicit in this particular statement.

 

[radical matt]

Sorry, allow me to be more precise:

By definition, her statement was not a racist one.