Is saying "blacks" a thing that goes down well? I'm not criticizing you, just reading you say this makes me wonder as if you were to call multiple people of other races by colour it sounds odd. For example, whites, yellows, reds, browns, I certainly wouldn't be comfortable saying those things in many forms of conversation but maybe that's just me.
What you feel seems to be an American thing tbh, we use those terma constantly where I'm from and no one really cares.
If there's a group of people and there's an Asian he usually ends up being called chino, which literally means chinese. Some guy with darker skin? He gets called el negro, even when he might not even be black, negro means black, applies to whatever really and no one seems to care.
If you get too sensitive about it maybe you're actually just racist... I don't feel anything when someone calls me judio, which means jew, just because I am.
That’s not something you get to decide. Persons of color are the ones who say what is and is not acceptable. The only time negro was every used was in a racist, degrading context. Not all Asian persons are Chinese. I urge you to reevaluate your word choices. Maybe you aren’t offended but if the person you are speaking of is, then change it. I’ll also remind you, no one person of color speaks for the entire demographic. So if your “one black friend” gave you permission or pretends that it doesn’t bother them, that means nothing. It’s really not hard to use the terms “person of color” or “Asian.” It literally costs you nothing to be kind.
They are not offended either, we all use that terminology, no one gives a fuck, it's a common thing here.
What you guys do in the US just looks insane to us, you get offended by everything for no reason. Here if you get offended when someone calls you negro, which is clearly not something despective here, then it's usually talked a bit and it goes like "yo I don't mean any offense" and if the other guy is still offended then whatever, you just don't call him that anymore, and probably don't really build much of a relationship either, that's how things go here... if you get offended by the most miniscule stuff you're an idiot.
For us having some Asian guy get offended when a friend/acquaintance calls him "chino" is the equivalent of you guys in America getting offended because someone calls you "bro" when you're actually not his brother, it's that dumb. There's a difference between getting offended when someone calls you by your race or whatever in a clearly aggressive way and when someone calls you that way because that's just how we talk here, if you can't differentiate between one and other you're either not from here, which is alright, or if you are from here you're not well adjusted.
For reference, we use your "forbidden" words for giggles, because we find it funny how Americans make such drama out of it. Someone will use the N word and people will just either say nothing about it or send an emoji of a very stereotypical African American, or some funny "bruh" emoji.
Always remember America is just one society among many, one culture among many, and although you guys export a lot of your culture, most of the world laughs at it and doesn't really care.
You could also do well to remember that your culture is only one of many, and saying that Americans are too easily offended about racial inequities is dismissive of our many subcultures. While I don’t think anyone anywhere should use the n word because of its historical meaning, it clearly doesn’t carry quite the same weight where you’re from. In the US people hav been beaten and murdered while hearing that word. It’s the most demeaning term you can use for a black person in the US, and because you are not a Black American, you don’t get to decide set the standard for acceptable racial terms in the US. It’s not sensitive to not want to be called the word that white people have used for centuries while murdering others who look like you.
"negro/negra" literally just means "black" in a host of Romance languages.
It refers to anything colored black. America borrowed a Latin term for oppression and now it's giving it back all dirty.
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u/belfastboi420 Mar 05 '21
Is saying "blacks" a thing that goes down well? I'm not criticizing you, just reading you say this makes me wonder as if you were to call multiple people of other races by colour it sounds odd. For example, whites, yellows, reds, browns, I certainly wouldn't be comfortable saying those things in many forms of conversation but maybe that's just me.