"PEOPLE OF 'DIFFERENT' RACES" - OH YEAH?

"PEOPLE OF 'DIFFERENT' RACES" -
OH YEAH?

First off, face it: there are no such entities as 'different races.' At the risk of being trite and repetitive because we've heard this sentence time and time again: "There's only one hueman race."

Does the phrase 'people of different races' perpetuate negativity especially against people of color? Yes, of course it does. If - as do color-bigots - one subscribes to the falsity of 'inferior' or 'superior' 'races.' (Ref. Dr. Pegggy MacIntosh "Paper 189" - on seeing correlations between white male privilege and color privilege; Wellesley College)

Harrowingly, in spite of ample evidence, many people of otherwise goodwill, including academicians who should know better, insist on obdurately cleaving to patently incorrect phraseology claiming "it's traditional!" as though maintaining 'tradition' in this case doesn't fly in the face of history and logic.

Remarkably, accompanying the too-often arrogant refusal to budge off their euphemizing is a range of untoward reactions which go anywhere from mild irritation to outright self-righteous anger. To point out to some folk that their language usage regarding people of color is counterproductive, antiquated, out of touch and downright incorrect, is to court their readily-expressed opporobrium and disdain.

Try it: just dare to inform someone - even diplomatically, (and in their interest) that they're utilizing inept, incorrect language to describe Black people and/or groups of Blacks - and be sure to dodge!

Whether the anger springs automatically from the thorniness of the prickly issue of color, or whether people feel that they're being tangentially accused of being racist/colorist, the ire is unmistakenly there and those thusly approached about their use of the terms like 'race,' 'races' and 'people of different races' reflexively 'get their dander up.' Why?

In fact, so frequent have we experienced these negative emotional reactions by people holding themselves out as integral members of the 'intelligentia,' that those of us heavily into the continuing fight for color equity have begun to call for 'Semantics Forums on Black Power-Parlance!'

For so-called 'leaders' in the various arenas of people activity, especially including academia and media, to continue with their inaccurate and lame-defense mis-use of the English language constitutes a kind of 'sleeping/giving-undeserved-comfort-to-the-enemy;' - and the 'enemy' is the untreated colorism which so undermines society's progress and causes so much havoc to so many hueman beings.

Remedies: Log on to www.Discussrace.com - TAKE and SHARE the www.Racismtest.org - then write your thoughts in to them (and pardon their use of those buzzwords 'race' and 'racism,' - now we know they should be using 'color' and 'colorism,' but I guess they're waiting for the 'Semantics Forums on Black Power-Parlance!')