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comment by AfraidofVWoolf
AfraidofVWoolf  ·  3208 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why are afraid to even mention race?

I get what you're saying and a lot of the cultural and social definitions of race are obviously a human construct, but for my initial problem, as a white mal, if I stand next to a black male, I'm going to see some physical differences, notably skin color. There are some biological differences between races, but the problem is that that there are a lot of culturally-defined groups of people that have somehow adopted the word "race."

I admit the word has changed over time, but my original dilemma still stands. If I'm trying to identify someone across the room, am I limited to saying "that human being over there," or maybe should I say "the darker-skinned guy."? I'm certainly not attaching any sort of cultural or social characteristics when I say "the black guy," I'm honestly just referring to the color of skin.

I don't like mentioning race in a lot of situations, like when the news is covering a piece on a criminal and they say "white male," "Latino woman," etc. because I feel like that can perpetuate those attachments we try to avoid. But in my situation, I don't think I'm attaching anything to it, and don't see why there's anything wrong with it.