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| KSa |
Is it racism?!
No comments |
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| Benjamin [inactive] |
The article does not state what the commentator actually said. | ||||
| KSa |
"That was of course Essien and not Mikel, I got confused over their similar tanned colour," |
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| Loic |
It was a delicate situation that would certainly smack of racism if that remark was uttered in a malicious tone. But I happen to believe, on the available facts of the circumstance, that it was an honest blunder. Suspending the poor commentator was a trite harsh. In my opinion, anything more than a gentle admonishment would already be too severe. | ||||
| KSa |
I see such remarks not more "racist" or "inappropriate" than uttering remarks about getting confused over similar hair colour or identical coats, dresses, etc. I think the liberal world has gone crazy about the "politically correct" code. As long as it ended up be comments only, I could just shrug my shoulders. Unfortunately, people are very often persecuted due to such innocent and harmless remarks. Sometimes even deprived of their civil rights, as it was in case of some Scottish firemen who had refused taking part in gay parade and were sacked. |
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| Benjamin [inactive] |
I assumed that this was his explanation afterwards for something he'd said during the game. I don't think it's racist per se. However, at least in British English, saying that black people have a 'tanned colour' sounds rather weird and unusual — and would probably be viewed as very old-fashioned at best. I completely fail to see what this has to do with the nine firefighters who refused to hand out fire safety leaflets at Pride Scotia in Glasgow in 2006 though. |
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| Elaine |
I don't quite understand the controversy. Is it the use of the term "tan-coloured"? Is it because he got the two confused in the first place? Suppose all but 2 of the team members were black and he got the only 2 white guys mixed up and said, "I got confused over their similar pale color". Would he have gotten suspended for that? Perhaps the officials who suspended him were buying into the stereotype that "all blacks (or Asians, or Mexicans, or whatever ethnicity you want to put here) people look alike" and mis-perceived an innocent mistake as racism. But still... 
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| Lazar |
Has anybody seen the ad for Crystal Light flavored water, where it says "Is your water pale?" - accompanied by the stationary body of a pale woman - and then it says "Pump it up!" - accompanied by darker-skinned women having fun and dancing around to music? I thought that ad was racist. (In the most recent incarnation that I've seen, they simply removed the pale woman but kept everything else.) | ||||
| Uriel |
I can't imagine getting worked up over that, or over the incident in the first post.
Acknowledging or calling attention to someone's race, or even flaunting it for effect is not the same as denigrating a race. |
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| Deborah |
That's what I think happened. |
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| Tiffany |
Unless they looked really grossly different, then I don't see racism if that is all that was said. People aren't racist because they have color vision and can see that we have different skin colors. The problem is when they take that difference and try to use it to prove inferiority or superiority. I don't see any of that. | ||||
| Benjamin [inactive] |
I actually wonder if it may have had more to do with the use of 'tanned colour'. In the UK, people usually describe people of sub-Saharan African or Afro-Caribbean descent as 'black'. There is a tendency to assume that describing such people as 'brown', 'tanned', 'coloured' or anything else unexpected (or old-fashioned) is racist. Ultimately, this is all very arbitrary — for some reason, as a society, we've decided that 'black' is acceptable, but 'brown' etc. are not. But of course, it should be remembered that this Czech football commentator was presumably not a native English speaker, and may not necessarily have been primarily familiar with British English. For example, I'm imagining someone familiar only with South African English trying to talk about skin colour in the UK — it partially works, but they're going to make some very big mistakes which would unintentionally cause offence. |
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| Uriel |
Wow. I can think of a few times when black people have referred to themselves as "brown", trying to get away from the baggage associated with "black"! And brown is certainly an acceptable term for people of Indian, Pakistani, Asian, or hispanic people who happen to be that color. "Colored" is now an unacceptable term, even though it was originally a polite euphemism for black, and even though you still occasionally hear people use it innocently (like my ex, who is definitely a toasty brown). "Tanned" has no rude connotations at all. | ||||
| Rio |
No, I don't think it was. Unfortunately, politically correct people have forgotten that skin colour can possibly be a visual cue for identifying a person.
Which leads me to this, in the world of Cricket: Do you think Singh calling Symonds a "monkey" is racist? I can't see the link myself between race and "monkey". |
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| Tiffany |
It is if he thinks of "monkey" as a derogatory term and is calling Symonds that because of his race. The term need not be explicitly about race to be a symptom of racism. | ||||
| Uriel |
Not familiar with the person you are referring to, but "monkey" certainly been a derogatory term associated with black people in many places, from "porch monkey" in the US (don't ever say this -- it will get your ass beat) to "baka saru" in Japan ("stupid monkey" -- often applied to blacks -- the Japanese are not the most PC people!). | ||||
| Rio |
Well then, maybe it is racist. I've never heard of "monkey" used with this connotation before. |
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| Loic |
Many Asians are unfortunately rather racist in a passive way. |
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| Joanne |
OT: Loic, your picture looks an awful lot like my cousin's new(ish) boyfriend. She just moved to Singapore a few months ago. You wouldn't happen to be dating an Filipina-Kiwi named Sara, would you? She looks a little like me, except younger and prettier (curse her!  )
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| Tiffany |
My maternal Grandma from China is quite OPENLY racist. She told me once that I had to marry Chinese because white men and black men would hit me. Her "Chinese are superior" attitude even bleeds into religion - she's Catholic and she told me on more than one occasion that "Jesus was Chinese". Strangely, she likes my husband (which we can't really figure out). But the first time she met him, she stared him down, then called him "paesan" and starting talking about how the Chinese and the Italians knew how to take care of family because they both had mafias... |
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| Loic |
Joanne: I'd keep my eyes peeled for a pretty filipina-kiwi then and report back to you when I've spotted her!
Tiffany: I don't think prejudice against whites among Asians in general is really malicious. I think that it is more of a deep-seated bias against any race of a darker complexion in general. To the younger generation's credit, this sort of incorrect thinking is gradually being shedded. |
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| Tiffany |
Malicious it may not always be, but prejudice is prejudice. I think it hurts us all in one way or another too. I do agree with you that Asian prejudice is worse towards people perceived to have darker skin. | ||||