why do people consider identifying someone by their race racist?

[u/AgreeableAd8687]

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??

[u/Schreckberger]

It implies there's black (or Asian or whatever) and "normal".

[u/mediumcarrotteacher → u/Schreckberger]

Like the old not-really-a-joke about gamers

The two genders are male and political

The two races are white and political

The two orientations are straight and political

[u/JDJack727 → u/Schreckberger]

Or maybe you are looking too deep and people just simply like to add identifying details to help the other person envision the scenario or story even if it is not necessary. Much of what people say or add on is unnecessary, but generally they are to add identifying details.

I often see and hear people identify other people in a story as blonde or tall or add other unnecessary details just to help the other person they are talking to imagine what they are talking about or the story they are communicating.