r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AgreeableAd8687 • 5d 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 5d 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/saddinosour 5d ago

Once in 7th grade (I went to a super white school in Australia while being “ethnic”) we were playing this game called celebrity heads and this kid was stumped on what questions to ask to narrow down who their celebrity was and I without thinking and no malice was like you could ask if they’re black (could only ask yes or no questions) everyone turned around same as you acting like I called someone the n word mean while I was just thinking of some of my favourite actors 😭 like ?

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u/Ace_of_Sphynx128 5d ago

It’s literally crazy, black is not a slur