Black people aren't actually "black" colored, white people aren't actually "white" colored either...

[lucky_sharm]

So why on Earth do we continue to refer to ourselves and other people like this? It doesn't make any sense at all. Wouldn't it be more correct to refer to black people as brown-skinned people and white people as light-ish pink-skinned?

 

[Astoria]

It's just easier to say black and white. People know what you mean anyway. Calling them brown and pinkish skin is just needlessly pedantic really.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Black and white are social constructs. Whether they actually match the skin tone of whichever group is being described (specifically, who exactly counts as "black" or "white") is irrelevant.

Besides, "brown-skinned" and "pink-skinned" describes everyone on the planet, or nearly.

 

[DanielBrown]

I'm beige, not "light-ish pink-skinned", thank you very much!

 

[Kolby Jack]

Well, we could come up with another term, but no doubt that would be consider racially insensitive by somebody, so it's easier to stick with a term that everybody is already cool with.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Well, since skin colour is a purely cosmetic quality (yeah, you could make arguments that Africans are more likely to suffer from sickle-cell anemia and Caucasians from hemophilia, but people are getting more and more mixed anyway), we just settle on that old way of classification and call it a day. You could just as well argue that there are various shades of "blonde" hair, or that "blue eyes" are usually more in the greyish area.

And we say "black" and "white", because we take our preconceptions from Mediterranean cultures, whose interaction with dark-skinned people was mostly through North Africans (and native North African tribes have very dark skin), and first reaction was probably "holy shit, look how dark this guy's skin is!"

 

[tthor]

lol because saying black is easier than saying darkish brown colored, and saying white is easier than saying pale-peach colored. Simplicity, my dear lad

 

[somonels]

"Between black and white there is no room for two"
Or, according to some school of thought
"Between black and white there is no room for blue
so let's start with blue, then black and white"

Maybe 2 out of 6 billion get this kinda joke.

Is it black or brown or is it massive skin cancer?

"I'm blue... da ba de dabba da-ee"
You better find a Max Raabe version with the Palast Orchester and not some retarded techno or remix

No, wait, I can troll better *gets smushed*

There are some who are more black than brown, and of course there are albinos, that the former murder for their special mumbo jumbo powers.

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

We say a lot of things that don't make sense when you think about it, but changing it seems like more hassle than it's worth. People will still blow everything out of proportion and claim the same racist arguments. We'd just be changing one broken system for another.

Besides - simplicity.

 

[Nickolai77]

Yeah, technically individuals with African heritage have varying degrees of brown shaded skin, individuals from European/Russian heritage have varying shades of pink skin, Looking at my body right now, my legs are very pale pink and my arms a light beige from the sun this summer.

Black and White are a simplification of this, it's inaccuracy reflects the ambiguities surrounding race.

 

[Unia]

I remember having this conversation before at arts class. There was a "flesh pink" color that didn't really match anyone. I could well start calling darker skinned people "burned sienna" or w/e but that makes me pink...and I HATE PINK. The term "olive-skin" was a mystery to me until I found out there are brown olives X)

With all the racism going on it's hard to have objective names for human races anyway. Wish they'd be seen more like dog breeds or something - you know, without in-breeding for purity and such BS. Black (African) and white (Caucasian) are still easy, but what do you call a typical resident of India vs. resident of northern China? Both Asian, although they're not that much alike.

And we say "black" and "white", because we take our preconceptions from Mediterranean cultures, whose interaction with dark-skinned people was mostly through North Africans (and native North African tribes have very dark skin), and first reaction was probably "holy shit, look how dark this guy's skin is!"

On a side note I remember seeing some camera crew making a nature documentary run into some tribe deep in the Amazonas that had never seen white people before. The natives used a lot chalk paint on their skin and seemed to think the crew was completely covered in the stuff. The black guy at front kept brushing his finger against the crew leader's arm and wondering why nothing came off XD

 

[JoJo]

I remember having this conversation before at arts class. There was a "flesh pink" color that didn't really match anyone. I could well start calling darker skinned people "burned sienna" or w/e but that makes me pink...and I HATE PINK. The term "olive-skin" was a mystery to me until I found out there are brown olives X)

With all the racism going on it's hard to have objective names for human races anyway. Wish they'd be seen more like dog breeds or something - you know, without in-breeding for purity and such BS. Black (African) and white (Caucasian) are still easy, but what do you call a typical resident of India vs. resident of northern China? Both Asian, although they're not that much alike.

Under old terms, the north Chinese person would be Mongoloid race whereas the Indian would either Dravidian or a form of Caucasian depending on what part of India they came from, however those terms aren't used much any more. More accepted nowadays to simply to refer to them as "East Asian" and "South Asian".

OT: Seems unneeded and a lot of white people aren't "light pinked skined" whereas a lot of non-black people are technically brown skinned.

Spoiler: Human Skin Colour Charts

 

[supermariner]

'light-ish pink skinned' takes too much of our precious time to say
precious time we could be using to spend farting or crying about how fat we are
... or whatever it is normal people do

i prefer the term honkey. I know it was meant as a racist slur originally, but i like it now. I'm going to adopt it like the black community have adopted the N word

 

[Jonny1188]

And while we're on this, why do people park in a driveway and drive in a park way? What's up with that?

 

[Fetzenfisch]

We have to deal with enough abominations of language thanks to P.C. and groups of oversensitive people with no real problems that have to discuss single words.
Where is the problems with black and white? I dont see any. Its not completly true when it comes to colour, but everyone on earth knows what it means. Its completely ok and unproblematic if just used describtive and without judgement.