Quote from danthebangerboy :

... so i said "yeah the black guy came and did it last week" i also said that he takes a while to do it as well when he comes to service it (normally takes the usual old guy about 2 hours max, me and him laugh at how it can take the other guy so long)

That can and will be classified as a racist remark. It's enough that you combine both the "black" and "slow worker" in one sentence. We don't know what exactly dan said, but chnaces are that he did infact imply that, be it intentional or not.

Now it doesn't have to do anything with the INTENTION of dan, it basically hits right on one of the main prejudices against black people and suffices to be regarded as a racist remark by outsiders who don't know how well that said black person actually works.

Quote from Danke :

Here the latest acceptable term is "African-American." I've even seen some American newscasters refer to a black man from another country (Lewis Hamilton for example) as an African-American, which clearly, he is not.

I've always wondered if there are similar terms in other countries, such as "African-Norwegian" or "Afro-Franco."

That's stupid that you can't accurately describe what a person looks like. How's some one African-American if they never been in either country? Or how you can not be African-American if you're born in Africa and then have moved to America and happen to be white (link).

Quote from ColeusRattus :

That can and will be classified as a racist remark. It's enough that you combine both the "black" and "slow worker" in one sentence. We don't know what exactly dan said, but chnaces are that he did infact imply that, be it intentional or not..

So you can't call someone who's black a slow worker because he is black?

Ofcourse you can..... Call him slow by his name, but not black.

I agree with Dan it is pretty pathetic. Going by the logic of some people then saying 'the white guy' is racist too.

Quote from DevilDare :

Ofcourse you can..... Call him slow by his name, but not black.

So if you don't know his name, What else would you say?

Quote from wild :

So if you don't know his name, What else would you say?

"The other mechanic who isn't white"?

Quote from ColeusRattus :

That can and will be classified as a racist remark. It's enough that you combine both the "black" and "slow worker" in one sentence. We don't know what exactly dan said, but chnaces are that he did infact imply that, be it intentional or not.

Now it doesn't have to do anything with the INTENTION of dan, it basically hits right on one of the main prejudices against black people and suffices to be regarded as a racist remark by outsiders who don't know how well that said black person actually works.

No no no, it wasnt anything to do with who the other mech was or what colour he was either, thats just an unfortunate coincidence, its just that me and the older usual mech (dave) were talking one day and he asked me about the other mechanic, who happens to be black, and he asked what was he like, and i said, well, he aint the quickest sometimes, seems to take him forever, and dave said yeah i have heard that from other places when and if he does my usual route, that he ties equipment up for ages because he's so slow on it despite being qualified.


This was just basically an observation made by him form going other places that this other mech is slow at his work, so he asked me what he was like when he comes to ours, so i told him, not very quick.

The whole black thing has nothing to do with his workmanship, he's just a slow mechanic who diesnt seem that good, who happens to be black.

Quote from mrodgers :

Osama bin Laudin

Havent read all the comments but i used to always say black person because they are that color. Then someone said "oh saying they are black is rascist! You have to call them coloured." So i was talking to somebody who is black and i mentioned the word coloured and they took far more insult to that then if i had said black.
Black is not rascist whatsoever.
Find this person and hit him in the face, then tell him to grow a pair.

Next they'll be telling us the England football team is a different race.

Oh wait...

Quote from MAGGOT :

Too bad, ginger boy!

Says a Canadian :rolleyes:

Quote from amp88 :

Do you call the other repair guy "the white man"?

No. That's racist.

Ah, but in an environment where a large majority of the people are black, say 9 out of 10, and 1 person was white, then i wouldnt think that it is racist at all, if the roles were reversed so to speak.

I agree with the people saying that this isn't racism.

What it is, is people looking for racism. If they are able to look and find it, doesn't that make them racist?

Nah, they are racist hunters!

Oi! Thats my surname!

I'd say finding racism in anything possible is the worst kind. Especially when you pick on small things that were accidental/not meant in a harmful way.

We have a black/coloured/not white person in our year. He's so overdramatic, he calls himself n****r all the time, yet if someone offends him, having NOTHING to do with skin colour, he cries to the teachers about it and whoever spoke about him is punished. Severely.

Last week, someone mentioned chocolate in a conversation to him, he burst into tears, and punched them in the face, and the poor guy with the bleeding nose got a detention.

Its not really a fair world, its getting too PC.

The worrying thing is, if you speak against this PC-state, its automatically assumed you support the BNP, as my dad found out :S

Being offended on someone elses behalf needs a name so that we can put it into a political correctness box and outlaw it.

What we all must learn is that some people are very, very, very stupid. This applies to whiteys, blackeys, spicks, chinks, faggots, liberals, fascists and everybody else no matter what their stereotype.

These stupid people like things they can understand. So they know that calling people whiteys, blackeys, spicks, chinks, etc etc is bad. They understand this, and they know it's wrong.

This simplification doesn't actually tackle the route issue, you see - when I used those terms above I included lots of groups, and included all others with "and everybody else", what I didn't do was add an implication based upon the name - and I didn't use the name as an insult - so i've not committed racism.

Because this concept is far too complex for a stupid person to understand, and because stupid people exist within all racial groups, the simple fact that I used a tabboo word would be sufficient to classify it as racism.

But let's take it a step further, some people are quite keen to point out an alternative classification of racism which is one where if you cause offence by a remark that in some way highlights race, then you've committed racism. This is rubbish, in my personal opinion, because some people WANT to find offence in things. Some people are easy to offend even if you adhere to every contrived rule of political correctness, and some people go looking for offence.

This latter group, that seek out things to be offended by, are the thickest of all. I'd much rather spend my time looking for ways to be happy, personally. I meen, it's not rocket science - and being a highly strung pent up cry baby or easy going IS a choice, I meen, it's not as if how much of an **** you are is determined by your race is it?

Quote from Becky Rose :

meen,

You spelt 'mean' wrong.

Me being a bit thick, I don't understand all your big, complicated words, but I think I agree and I think thats what I've been trying to say.

I think.

Quote from Kalev EST :

Yeah yeah, sorry bout that. Some of us are at work and jump on and read forums when we have a spare moment, like during our 5 minute lunch moment or 5 minutes before the start of the day, and type fast.

Quote from piggy501 :

You spelt 'mean' wrong.

Me being a bit thick, I don't understand all your big, complicated words, but I think I agree and I think thats what I've been trying to say.

I think.

I've been spelling mean wrong for 35 years and every time I try to learn the correct (non-mathematical) spelling I end up getting confused as to which spelling is which again.

I'm physically not capable of retaining the information. English is confusing, but I have over 20 other languages so i'm ok...

...provided i'm talking to a computer that is.

Off topic but you make me laugh.

In a good way.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I think the geezer was being a bit over-sensitive if he was seriously thinking about reporting you, but it sounds like you didn't exactly choose your words wisely.

I agree that "the black guy" is a fair-enough rough description of someone if everybody else you work with is white, although it's a bit insensitive given that racism is a big issue. And to then go on and banter about how slow he is compared to the usual white guy you get is just asking for trouble.

Yep.

Quote from amp88 :

What's the difference between these 2 conversations:

They have different words; the latter having more of them. Neither is offensive, neither really makes a difference. I totally don't get the argument here! If his distinguishing feature in this workplace is being black, that's not racist, it's just a way of denoting who did the job. As has already been said.

EDIT; I thought this thread was only 1 page long. I haven't read the rest of it.

The problem here is that some people are arguing principle/logic while others are arguing practicality/context.

No, there's nothing factually racist about what dan said, but the words were indelicately/stupidly chosen, and as someone who has been raised in a world post-slavery/colonialism/institutionalized racism he should know better.

End of.