A Black and white decision

[Lootman]

FTFY. Purely speculatively, of course. The original statement seems pretty pure-bred racist, attributing attitudes to people based purely on skin colour.

I think, as the quote from Donald Glover points out in the article I linked, that THAT is precisely what happened when they (variously sourced African people) were enslaved, shipped off and treated as a homogeneous underclass of human for quite a long time in some parts of the world. He's probably got a better understanding of it than I do.

I'm not surprised they might find a common sense of self.

Except of course that most Africans were never enslaved, shipped off etc. If I were a black African and some well-meaning white person characterised and patronised me that way, I might feel less than impressed.

And even if my number one ideological imperative was expressing sympathy and support for one particular race over others, I might try and find something more meaningful and impactful to hang my hat on than the petty linguistic token gesture of spelling the word "blacks" with a capital "B". Is that really the hill any advocate of rights for blacks wants to die on?

[UncleEbenezer]

And even if my number one ideological imperative was expressing sympathy and support for one particular race over others, I might try and find something more meaningful and impactful to hang my hat on than the petty linguistic token gesture of spelling the word "blacks" with a capital "B". Is that really the hill any advocate of rights for blacks wants to die on?

Come on Looty, you know perfectly well. It serves to distinguish them from normal Humans.

Just to be clear, not my view. I'm not the one advocating any arbitrary Capitalisation.

[88V8]

FTFY. Purely speculatively, of course. The original statement seems pretty pure-bred racist, attributing attitudes to people based purely on skin colour.

I think, as the quote from Donald Glover points out in the article I linked, that THAT is precisely what happened when they (variously sourced African people) were enslaved, shipped off and treated as a homogeneous underclass of human for quite a long time in some parts of the world.

True, and of course it's worse than that because there was a well-developed system of domestic slavery in Africa long before whites came along. So when whites expanded the slave trade, it was cultural appropriation

V8

[Lootman]

And even if my number one ideological imperative was expressing sympathy and support for one particular race over others, I might try and find something more meaningful and impactful to hang my hat on than the petty linguistic token gesture of spelling the word "blacks" with a capital "B". Is that really the hill any advocate of rights for blacks wants to die on?

Come on Looty, you know perfectly well. It serves to distinguish them from normal Humans.

Just to be clear, not my view. I'm not the one advocating any arbitrary Capitalisation.

I know. I am just imagining being a dirt-poor black person living in Appalachia, Haiti or Liberia thinking to myself: "I do hope that more white people capitalise the collective term for people who look like me".

[Bminusrob]

In case you haven't worked out how silly this Black, white, piNk, gREen, bluE, rEd nonsesne is, The Telegraph is reporting (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/1 ... black-guy/) "BBC deletes clip of Fiona Brice addressing 'black guy' on Question Time". In order to identify the peson she wished to ask a question, she pointed towards the man, and identified him by a notable characteristic. The whole woke thing is going even more crazy.

[servodude]

I think, as the quote from Donald Glover points out in the article I linked, that THAT is precisely what happened when they (variously sourced African people) were enslaved, shipped off and treated as a homogeneous underclass of human for quite a long time in some parts of the world. He's probably got a better understanding of it than I do.
I'm not surprised they might find a common sense of self

Erm, that's not unique nor even unusual in human history. It matters in the US - where the legacy of that is so big and arguably lives on today - but even in the case of Black Americans[1] you'd be excluding such distinguished figures as their recent President.

[1] As distinct from African Americans like Elon Musk. At least for those of us who try to resist Newspeak.

No. I'm just not pretending that there isn't an argument for it as a proper noun when required; and it's required at different cases than White
Or Orange, Red, Blue, Yellow - colours used as synecdoche for groups of people, sometimes with pejorative connotations

[Lootman]

Erm, that's not unique nor even unusual in human history. It matters in the US - where the legacy of that is so big and arguably lives on today - but even in the case of Black Americans[1] you'd be excluding such distinguished figures as their recent President.

[1] As distinct from African Americans like Elon Musk. At least for those of us who try to resist Newspeak.

No. I'm just not pretending that there isn't an argument for it as a proper noun when required; and it's required at different cases than White

Although you have asserted that there is a stronger case for using "Blacks" than for using "Whites", you have not demonstrated that to the satisfaction of anyone here, let alone proven it.

What is concerning is not that you argue to use "Blacks" but that you appear to oppose using "Whites" in the exact same context. That appears to many here as black exceptionalism, at best, and a racialist outlook, at worst. Why not instead argue for equality of usage? Describe the problem that you have with being consistent and inclusive about language in such a way.