[Vision2020] An Easy Guide to Avoiding Racial Offense

[Paul Rumelhart]

All-in-all a good list.  I would also like to make the point that, 
depending upon where and when you grew up, it's not always easy not to 
accidentally offend someone.  I remember making the mistake of jokingly 
calling someone an "Indian-giver" in a meeting when they gave us 
something and then took it away (no Native Americans present).  I got 
raked over the coals for it.  However, it's just the term that I was 
used to using since I was about five for that uncommon practice.  I 
wasn't even thinking about the history of the term or the fact that it 
could be derogative.  Yet the reaction I got was truly inspiring.  So, 
I'll tell you what.  I'll try not to put my foot in my mouth if everyone 
else will take a deep breath and relax if I happen to inadvertently slip up.

Paul

Andreas Schou wrote:
> (1) If you have to refer to race for some reason, call people what
> they ask you to. If they have to correct you, "oh, I'm sorry, I'll try
> to do better" will suffice. Don't be stubbornly antiquated. For
> instance, don't use the word "negro." You are not a seventy-year-old
> man in a seersucker suit that's half-drunk on mint juleps: pleading
> ignorance is not an option.
>
> (2) If you do something racially insensitive by accident, apologize,
> but don't freak out. You've just done something rude, but, hell, we've
> all used the wrong fork at an expensive dinner.
>
> (3) If you do something racially insensitive on purpose, don't whine
> when there are consequences. If it is, for instance, your job to say
> things to people, and you are speaking into a microphone, and
> everything you say is recorded, do not pretend that it isn't gross
> incompetence to say the wrong thing.
>
> (4) If you are white, do not pretend that because your grandparents
> came over from the Old Country, you, in particular, have experienced
> any particular racism. I can't tell that you're
> Irish/Italian/Polish/whatever. Neither can anyone else. People have to
> know this in order to discriminate against you. Some exceptions may
> exist for people who have lived in Hawaii. Every other white person in
> America is out of luck.
>
> (5) We all have freedom of speech. That means the government can't
> shut you up. That doesn't mean that I can't object to what you say.
>
> (6) Don't think you can use racial slurs because people of the same
> ethnic group use them on each other. It's baffling in the same way
> that telling "yo mamma" jokes to your siblings would be, but not
> offensive in the same way that a stranger shouting a "yo mamma" joke
> out of their car window would be.
>
> (7) That Chris Rock impression you're going to do at the NAACP
> conference? Yeah. That's probably a bad idea.
>
> It is not a tremendous imposition on you to do these things. It's rude
> not to. Why is that such a big deal?
>
> -- ACS
>
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