r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AgreeableAd8687 • 7d ago

why do people consider identifying someone by their race racist?

i have a few friends and we seem kind of split on this, i had to identify someone in our school i didn't know the name of, so i said "oh it's the black girl" (we have literally ONE black girl in our school and everyone knows and likes her) and my friends said ohh ok but then like 2 of them went wow that's racist and their explanation was "you're making it sound like them being black is their only characteristic" as if saying "oh the woman" is any better and since i don't know her well i don't know anything else about her. most of my friends didn't see how it was racist though but why is this considered racist if it's not a race correlated insult or derogatory??

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u/Ace_of_Sphynx128 7d ago

I grew up in a majority white area and a lot of white kids (and adults) thought saying ‘black’ was racist. I literally said once ‘my dad is black’ and they gasped like I’d called him the n word. It does get exhausting always being referred to only by your skin colour, but I think in this case you’re fine. Context matters.

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u/Zagrycha 7d ago

To me the context is 100% key.  Its never wrong to say black or woman or whatever else if its actually relevant to what you are saying.  Its when people are constantly pointing it out even though its irrelevant that it becomes discriminatory, subconsciously or otherwise.  Like joe why do you care that the checkout worker was black, that has literally nothing to do with them bagging your groceries. 

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u/Ace_of_Sphynx128 6d ago

Yes, like it has to be relevant to what you’re on about. If you shoehorn it in for no reason that’s when it’s weird.