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by **Farlsborough** » Nov 1st, '09, 18:50

While we're on the subject, can I ask: does anyone know what the correct way to ask someone's ethnicity from if your curiosity is aroused by their skin colour? Should it simply be "what's your ethnic background?"

"Where are you from" doesn't seem to go down well, and the sister question "where were you born" is usually redundant as the answer is probably "Bromwich."

"May I enquire as to the origin of your skin colour?"

by **IAIN** » Nov 1st, '09, 19:47

yeah - "what's your ethnicity?" may be the formal and slightly hard to pronounce way of asking...

by **Replicant** » Nov 1st, '09, 21:34

I would go with, "what's your ethnic background?" Personally, I would avoid "what's your ethnicity?" as I would probably end up spitting all over them, Daffy Duck stylee.

by **Farlsborough** » Nov 1st, '09, 22:20

Replicant wrote:I would go with, "what's your ethnic background?" Personally, I would avoid "what's your ethnicity?" as I would probably end up spitting all over them, Daffy Duck stylee.

Ha ha... "whath your ethnithithithithy?" :lol:

by **IAIN** » Nov 1st, '09, 22:34

racist lispists!

by **MagicalSmithy** » Nov 2nd, '09, 03:15

nickj wrote:30 volunteers were split according to eye colour; blue an non-blue. The Blue eyes were treated badly, bullied and generally picked on to "teach them a lesson about being racist".

The treatment seemed to me to be apt for the origins of the experiment in 1950s America, but I'm not sure that it was at all realistic for modern Britain. However, I am white middle class and acknowledge that I probably haven't got any real clue about this sort of thing.

The bit that got me was that the woman running it (who was white with blue eyes) was adamant that all white people, no matter what their background were pre-programmed to be racist and that there is not a single one in the world who is not. By contrast, she assumed that every black person was a permanent victim of racism. By the end, any white person who suggested that they or someone else was not racist was basically shot down and told they knew nothing, even the woman who was born in and raised in a predominantly black society and had therefore experienced living as part of a minority.

I am happy to accept that I have pre-conceived ideas about all sorts of things, probably some to do with race, but that is part of being human; your brain tries to fill all the gaps by making stuff up. However, I do wonder why it is that if I do that about someone white and change my mind once I know the facts that this is normal, whereas if I do it with regard to someone of a different race to me then it's racism.

To my eyes, though, the woman running the show was the most "racist" of the lot as she appeared to pigeon-hole every single member of the study based entirely on skin colour; every white person was demonised, every black person was a poor victim and the Asians were more or less ignored for the whole thing. Maybe that was the real point of the exercise.

For the first experiment would it not havbe made more sense to split white from black....it being based on racism....

And everyone is just a little bot racist it just depends if you act or talk upon these inner feeling as to weather your a C*** or just some one who maybe dislikes something.....religion can be a big cause i mean the pope will not accept muslims does that make him racist.

by **damianjennings** » Nov 2nd, '09, 16:06

MagicalSmithy wrote:.religion can be a big cause i mean the pope will not accept muslims does that make him racist.

Yes. If that was true.

But it isn't.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5376556.stm

by **Robbie** » Nov 2nd, '09, 16:11

MagicalSmithy wrote:For the first experiment would it not havbe made more sense to split white from black....it being based on racism....

It was a recreation of the original experiment which took place in a school in an American midwestern suburb in the 1960s.

Having grown up myself in an American midwestern suburb in the 1960s, I'm pretty safe in asserting that not only were all the children in that classroom white, but none of them had ever actually seen a person of another colour than themselves.

by **Replicant** » Nov 2nd, '09, 16:48

When I was in Cornwall in 2001, I was waiting for my wife outside a shop. Two lads cycled past and stopped across the road from me. I heard one of them say to his friend, "Look! It's a Chinese Man!" I had to laugh because it was hilarious. I told my wife and she nearly did a wee, she laughed so much.

by **Robbie** » Nov 2nd, '09, 17:19

My grandparents lived in Florida and we visited them every year, so I did see some black people there when I was young. But my neighbourhood and schools were 100% white. In fact, the neighbourhood where I grew up was strictly (if clandestinely) controlled by the property developer. You couldn't buy a house there unless he approved of you personally, and I gather he was pretty racist, religionist, and everything-else-ist.

Just as we moved away from there in 1976, the first black family had moved in down the road. I suspect they wouldn't have been allowed in the neighbourhood at all if the father hadn't been a doctor. Or else the property developer had relinquished control by then.

by **aporia** » Nov 2nd, '09, 19:54

Robbie wrote: controlled by the property developer.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen on those out-take programmes was a local TV news crew calling at an old gent whose house was for sale. He lived in Australia and was a (white/pink) Australian.

He had put his own for-sale small ad in the newspaper by telephone:

"House for sale. No asians."

Cue: apoplectic news crew ("oh how stupid is the white boy")
Cue: indignant homeowner ("but I can sell my house however I want")

Newscrew: "you can't put that in your advert, you can't say 'no asians' "
WB: "why not?"
NC:"it's illegal"
WB:"no it's not, I don't like asians. They are all thieves. They come here and put up their boards and take a commission for doing nothing. If I want to sell my house myself I can. I don't need an estate asian to sell it for me".

Pregnant pause while the NC worked out what he said and then what he meant .....

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