Klarinet Archive - Posting 000390.txt from 2002/12

From: Deidre Calarco <dleigh@-----.org>
Subj: Re: AW: [kl] Reed strength
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 09:20:39 -0500

On 12/15/02 7:59 PM, "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net> wrote:

> I think the objection was to the stereotypic reference to blacks as having
> large lips - the offensive caricature you suggested of the black African
> with lips hanging down to his chest was, I think, the basis of Ken's
> comment, not the choice of "black" rather than Negro or "colored" as the
> descriptor.
>
> Karl Krelove

Bingo. In my experience, it's fine to use "black" as a descriptor i.e.
"Kevin? He's the black guy in the blue sweater standing by the door," but
the big lips thing is a stereotype and some will find it offensive. Here in
the US anyway, people with African ancestry have all different kinds of
features, partly because they're as ethnically mixed as the rest of us, and
partly because people from different parts of Africa look different from
each other, just like people from different parts of Europe or Asia do.

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