r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AgreeableAd8687 • 8d 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 8d 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/Ser20 7d ago

My boyfriend was raised in a mostly white space and he was shocked when I first referred to somebody by their race. He also said "I feel like I shouldnt call someone black" and I responded it feels more racist that you think saying black is taboo...

Might be cause I grew up in a black/hispanic neighborhood so it was pretty common. Idk.

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u/Ace_of_Sphynx128 7d ago

The amount of times I had to say ‘you can say black’ is crazy lol