A couple of things i hear people say.....

[kombolcha]

oh .. another thing i forgot.. what if you are black but were born in america, why are they still called African American? they don't call whites White American or an Irish.............. OH forget it!! people are people except for green ones with pink dots :D

NO COLOR LINES !

[CtotheJ]

Zero_the_Kamikaze_Squirrel>

There is not a person alive with "white" skin. Light tan, yes, white, no. I belive this thread was started to talk about why there was a double standard.

Personally, I really don't care. I just say 'black', like I just say 'white'. So far, I've had no complaints. If I ever did, I would ask them an honest 'why?'. Seriously, it's not disrespecfull to describe someone as black. If someone thinks of it that way, then their views are seriously messed up.

[mat987]

What is wrong with calling a black person black? If you complain about that then you're seriously looking for a reason to complain. How is black more offensive than white? Of course black people aren't truly 100% "black"....but white people aren't truly 100% "white" either. Yeesh.

[Zero_the_Kamikaze_Squirrel]

My point is... why are you grouping people by skin colour? Why are they "black people"? Why aren't they just people? We don't go around talking about "tall people" or "brown-eyed people." Skin colour is nothing more than a physical trait, like eye and hair colour. So why is "race" or "ethnicity" on college applications and not eye colour? Why are their scholarships for people with a certain skin colour?

For the record, almost nothing offends me. I just laught when someone thinks I should be offended by someone elses words or opinions. As long as they don't stop me from living my life, I couldn't care less what someone else believes. I personally don't respond to the term white or caucasian because I don't think people should be placed into groups based on physical characteristics. I also don't use the term "black person" because skin colour doesn't define what kind of person you are, it describes how much melanin is in your skin.

[Callaway]

My take:

People seem to have confused skin color with culture. Having dark skin does not make you black. Yet how you act, your beliefs, morals, etc indicates your culture and if your white, black, hispanic, or whatever.

African-American is a poor choice, unless you were indeed born in Africa. Otherwise, you're a U.S citizen who happens to have darker skin than me. Though that's a rather simplistic view.

[PezDspncr]

haha...check this story out :)

http://www.laststory.com/Affirmative%20Act...n%20College.htm

[CtotheJ]

My point is... why are you grouping people by skin colour? Why are they "black people"? Why aren't they just people? We don't go around talking about "tall people" or "brown-eyed people." Skin colour is nothing more than a physical trait, like eye and hair colour. So why is "race" or "ethnicity" on college applications and not eye colour? Why are their scholarships for people with a certain skin colour?

For the record, almost nothing offends me. I just laught when someone thinks I should be offended by someone elses words or opinions. As long as they don't stop me from living my life, I couldn't care less what someone else believes. I personally don't respond to the term white or caucasian because I don't think people should be placed into groups based on physical characteristics. I also don't use the term "black person" because skin colour doesn't define what kind of person you are, it describes how much melanin is in your skin.

It's a descriptive quality. I'm talking about someone to someone else, so I say:

>I heard John H's gonna be in your class next year.

>>Which one's he?

>The big black guy.

>>Oh yah.

Yes, I do call people tall, blond, fat, if I'm trying to describe someone. I see no reason why 'Black' should be any more offensive, because someone's skin color is a very noticable variation that people can be identified as.

[glockfan]

agreed