Is this racist, does my teacher have a right to punish me for this?

[warmonkey]

actually "person of color" had somewhat recently returned as the preferred term for a few years. i dunno. it's all garbage.

if you had put "pale skin" it would be more clearly not a race issue, but i doubt ol' teach would have had an issue if you had listed "nice tan" or "dark skin". the whole thing is a disaster and the teacher needs to be reprimanded by her superiors. what a load of crap.

 

[scorptatious]

I was thinking of making a thread asking this kind of question.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way about sexual preferences over skin color.

 

[SIXVI06-M]

We were discussing attraction in psychology today and we did a worksheet, one of the questions being about what we find attractive in the opposite sex. When it got to which physical characteristics we find most attractive, I listed:

somewhat tall
healthy-looking, ie in good shape but not too skinny
dark hair
white skin

and some other things, but that last one was what got me in trouble. Now, at no point did I say I find other skin colors unattractive, and I did not say that I find colored people unattractive, just for their skin color. All I said was that it was one of many physical characteristics (saying nothing of personality and intellectual traits) that I find attractive. And also, it's not like I'd turn down a girl just because of her skin color, to me it's just one trait that I notice, and there are many more (saying nothing of intellectual and personality traits). To me, dating a black or asian girl would be no different than dating a blonde, yes I prefer dark to blonde hair but I can still find her attractive and nice (hopefully). I thought I was being honest about a personal opinion in a mature discussion about a mature topic.

In short, it's no different than my finding dark brown hair more attractive than light blonde hair. It's only a superficial thing.

Anyway, she didn't even give me a chance to explain what I meant by that, and wouldn't hear a word of it when I tried. Now I have to write a paper about racial tolerance. Is this right? Am I a racist, just for finding one skin color more physically appealing than the others?

EDIT/UPDATE: Okay, so the term 'colored people' comes off as racist. Just a poor choice of words on my part, sorry. I'd actually been told it was the politically correct term.

I like girls with white skin - and as a personal preference, I don't like asians (and I AM an asian), so I literally like girls whose race has predominantly white skin. I've been known to like girls with very dark skin on occasion - which I don't seem to mind, I have a penchant for very pretty Indian girls. But on the whole, I really really like porcelain skin, it is a soft yet beautifully striking tone

I choose particular races because I have personal preferences for them, so yes, I discriminate - the way we'd discriminate one brand of shoes over another, the way we'd discriminate why we might like italian food over chinese or mexican or indian food. That's not racism though- racism means you actually have to hate the particular race or feel that they should deliberately be disadvantaged due to your conceptions of their kind.

If we were to follow your teachers politically correct logic it means that you're not allowed to choose what kind of partner you want - because every race has very general stereotypes too - so if you make ANY specific mention of personal preference- your teacher would have to brand you as racist. Does that teacher also require that the whole class live in rainbow houses too? does your teacher mandate that you have to eat every cuisine from every ethnicity and culture for every day of the week?

Your teacher has some personal issues to work out, recommend to your school counsellor to pull your teacher in for a bit of therapy.

You don't deserve to be PUNISHED, you may just need EDUCATION on wording and subtleties of terminology (and even sometimes it goes overboard) - you go to school to be EDUCATED, you go to jail to be PUNISHED.

I do worry that political correctness is going to turn out to be some kind of totalitarian dictator nanny, where people get shot for using the word "white".

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

Whelp, it is a situation that no matter what you say or how you say it, somebody will be 'offended' by it.

Truthfully, though? It isn't racist. It's just what your mind is officially attracted to. A particular color of skin, eyes, hair, even build are all characterstics that are the main basic points that you find attractive. Not all blacks like white people in their apperance, and thus will focus mainly on people of their own color.

Me? I don't mind flesh-tone, though I will admit that there are several particular builds that I need to find attractive...

 

[SIXVI06-M]

We were discussing attraction in psychology today and we did a worksheet, one of the questions being about what we find attractive in the opposite sex.

Additionally - your teacher is teaching PSYCHOLOGY, NOT political correctness, modern history, or society and culture studies.

There is a whole REALM of social psychology phenomena and study related to personal preference and why we discriminate one thing over another.

We choose because we are human - you choose a color because it appeals to you the way a color I like appeals to me.

Your teacher, as an educator, doesn't seem very educated at all. That teacher's reactionary-nanny tendencies is far more reminiscent of thought policing or thought control. Thought control I have been led to believe is usually a communist concept. Is your teacher a communist? (and if your teacher is offended and calls you out for branding him/her a communist, you should call HER out for discrimination and possible racism for hating communists. There's actually nothing wrong with communists - it is a good concept, it just has the tendency of being run the wrong way by the wrong people).

 

[Farther than stars]

No, it's not racist, but you know how sensitive people can get. Although in this case it sounds like pure baiting. I mean, you were asked what you like in physical appearance, you answered that truthfully and were then reprimanded for your conciseness.
As a matter of fact though, it's actually not that perculiar to find white skin colour attractive. Tests have shown darker skin tones correlate directly to the amount of testosterone in your body and therefore it's perfectly natural to find lighter skin tones in a woman more attractive as man.
Then there are social stigmas to consider. Think about how most of the women you see around you in the media and on billboards are white. If fashion associates beauty with lighter skin tones, then it could never be your fault for doing the same thing.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

you racist bastard! I bet you're not attracted to men either you sex prick!

 

[Zanaxal]

Your teacher was dumb, i seriously haven't met a teacher that hasn't had their head up their ass. I guess its just my luck. Or the Job just attracts and/or broods sadistic power mongerers.

They enjoy just punishing without just cause most of the time. True story. And whenever theirs some real stuff like the school was set on fire etc they act like "oh well, thats just sad." Well in my country the education is near rock bottom in europe soon so no big suprise.

Best thing is never give a damn about the teachers opinions, you can just suck up to him to manipulate better grades which is what smart ppl do.

 

[-Samurai-]

Not racist. Involve parents and higher-ups in school.

And even if you did mean that you're only attracted to white people, it still still isn't racist.

I couldn't date outside my race, and I'm not racist. I'm just not physically attracted to anyone that isn't white. But that doesn't mean I stand on the street corner screaming racial profanities and preaching inequality.

 

[Koljin999]

let me get this strait your teacher asked you what you like in the opposite sex, you answered the questions provided, and your teacher said wrong? In that case, your teacher is saying that you don't know what you like, because what you do like is apparently "not right". Tell your teacher to go fuk him/herself for being a tool.

 

[DarkTenka]

@ OP

What right does the teacher even have to ask you what you are attracted to?! .. this whole thing sounds really sus.

You cant be blamed for being more attracted to a certain skin color the same way a homosexual cant be blamed for being attracted to the same gender. I would rage off my face if I was you.

 

[spartan231490]

We were discussing attraction in psychology today and we did a worksheet, one of the questions being about what we find attractive in the opposite sex. When it got to which physical characteristics we find most attractive, I listed:

somewhat tall
healthy-looking, ie in good shape but not too skinny
dark hair
white skin

and some other things, but that last one was what got me in trouble. Now, at no point did I say I find other skin colors unattractive, and I did not say that I find colored people unattractive, just for their skin color. All I said was that it was one of many physical characteristics (saying nothing of personality and intellectual traits) that I find attractive. And also, it's not like I'd turn down a girl just because of her skin color, to me it's just one trait that I notice, and there are many more (saying nothing of intellectual and personality traits). To me, dating a black or asian girl would be no different than dating a blonde, yes I prefer dark to blonde hair but I can still find her attractive and nice (hopefully). I thought I was being honest about a personal opinion in a mature discussion about a mature topic.

In short, it's no different than my finding dark brown hair more attractive than light blonde hair. It's only a superficial thing.

Anyway, she didn't even give me a chance to explain what I meant by that, and wouldn't hear a word of it when I tried. Now I have to write a paper about racial tolerance. Is this right? Am I a racist, just for finding one skin color more physically appealing than the others?

EDIT/UPDATE: Okay, so the term 'colored people' comes off as racist. Just a poor choice of words on my part, sorry. I'd actually been told it was the politically correct term.

Go to your dean. It's no worse than preferring dark over light hair, or tall women over short, or nominal weight over fat.

On second thought, write a paper on the trivialization of true racism cases by crackpots pulling the race card for no reason. Make it about one page long and end it with this:

"To say that this is racist is ignorant, sensationalist, and it demeans everyone who has ever suffered true racial intolerance. I will not write your stupid essay, and if you fail me, or punish me in any way, I will go to the dean and say that you are being unreasonable and persecuting me for my sexual preference. As you didn't assign this essay to people who prefer tall over short, dark hair over light, or nominal weight over obesity, you have no leg to stand on by calling this discrimination(aka racism) and I will not tolerate such unfounded, libelous accusations."

"Politically correct" depends on where you are from, just another reason it's an idiotic construction.

 

[spartan231490]

I'm betting the teacher's just ass-covering here. Teachers get in *deep* trouble if students claim offense to anything that may seem "racially charged", and all it would take is one person seeing your paper and claiming it's "racism" with her doing nothing about it and BAM, she's in trouble for permitting "racism" in her classroom. So she's probably doing what she did just to protect her job. And in the process, she swung too far the other way.

Definitely wrong and definitely an overreaction, but I'm betting that is what's happening here. With all of the pressures that come from on high, teachers generally HAVE to overreact to stupid stuff like this, because otherwise "they're not being racially sensitive enough".

It boils down to simple cause and effect. If you have a overenthusiastic PC society, you will start seeing teachers/administrators/bosses/etc being EXTREMELY knee-jerky when it comes to even mild material regarding race, religion, gender, etc, all out of an interest to maintain the social order and keep their jobs. The only way to get rid of this sort of thing is to stop being PC.

The fact that she didn't listen to any argument kinda calls this interpretation of events into question. I strongly doubt that this is what happened. I believe she's just one of those people that likes to scream the race card for no reason.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

Don't ask a question if you don't want the answer. Don't you dare write that paper. Instead turn in a paper describing your reasoning and explaining your opinion. If she doesn't accept that, then bring in an administrator. She wants to play ball? Then play ball.

 

[Epicspoon]

This is not racist at all. Might I suggest printing off the pages from this thread and using it as evidence for any legal actions that you might consider taking?

for the record (not that many people will care) I prefer either white or very tan women.
and when I say tan I mean a naturally Caucasian person who is very tan. By no means does that make me racist. if I end up falling in love with somebody of a different ethnicity then so be it. I fall in love with them. for me its a purely cosmetic trait, nothing to do with what kind of background that person has. not to mention psychology dictates that everybody is racist.

 

[cainx10a]

I'm a brown man who only finds white and fair skinned ladies attractive. That's not racism.

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

How is what you find physically attractive any indication of some learned pattern of belief of one ethnicity being superior to another? No, your reply was not that catch-all political epithet, "racist", your teacher is a simply dullard.

 

[SIXVI06-M]

This is not racist at all. Might I suggest printing off the pages from this thread and using it as evidence for any legal actions that you might consider taking?

for the record (not that many people will care) I prefer either white or very tan women.
and when I say tan I mean a naturally Caucasian person who is very tan. By no means does that make me racist. if I end up falling in love with somebody of a different ethnicity then so be it. I fall in love with them. for me its a purely cosmetic trait, nothing to do with what kind of background that person has. not to mention psychology dictates that everybody is racist.

I second this - I want this teacher to feel like an idiot because she is an idiot. And then she will learn about persecuting someone in the class because SHE has personal preferences.