Timeline for How do I say that someone is black?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 13, 2019 at 13:52 | comment | added | fdomn-m | If this is set in England in 1975, then sure, "I wondered what part of Africa the black man come from" might be expected due to ignorance (at the time the vast majority were from the Caribbean) - in 2013... most definitely not. | |
| Mar 13, 2019 at 10:36 | comment | added | Liquid | @BittermanAndy I agree, the ancestor part seems fishy. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 16:22 | comment | added | Nathan | All our ancestors are from Africa. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 10:35 | comment | added | BittermanAndy | The example text says more about the narrator than the subject. "I wondered what part of Africa his ancestors came from" - really? Would he wonder what part of Europe a white guy's ancestors came from, and make a note to ask about it? Why the assumption of Africa in this case? Why the assumption that that person would care or even know where their "ancestors" came from, or want to talk about it? The narrator of that example passage seems to have an awful lot of baggage and make an awful lot of presumptions based on skin colour, all to avoid writing the word "black". | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 2:18 | comment | added | user31257 | @CreativeKid I think this is a bad answer I recommend not writing it this way | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 18:43 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | The idea is good, but the execution is kinda weird. Without context, I might read this as the narrator wondering way back to when we all left AFrica. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 16:15 | comment | added | Cain | @Rasdashan There's likely a lot of variation based on culture and country here, but I think the above has more confusion without avoiding any potential offense. Many people from northern Africa have Arabic appearances, while a significant portion of South-Africans are Caucasian | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 16:07 | comment | added | Rasdashan | @Cain True, though it does tell the reader the colour of the character’s skin without the internal confusion of what is the acceptable term - these days. It changes. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 16:03 | comment | added | Cain | For what it's worth, this may make your narrator seem somewhat naive.Not all black people have African heritage, and in fact large parts of the black community object to African, African American, African British, etc. manhattan-institute.org/html/… | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 8:01 | comment | added | user37170 | Thank you for your answer, that's a very intelligent minimalist way. No, my character does not know it instinctively, it's that later on in the novel she has a conversation with him where he mentions that his ancestors are from Kenya. | |
| Mar 11, 2019 at 7:57 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Mar 18, 2019 at 17:30 | |||||
| Mar 11, 2019 at 5:20 | history | answered | Rasdashan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |