this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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That guy's skin colour really has no relevance to the story. It's like saying "tall woman next to me..."
It helps to paint a more complete picture of the situation. The color of the man’s skin says nothing more than the color of his skin. However, now I know that the man that came to him is black. Since people generally don’t mention the color of someone’s skin if they are the same color. I also can assume that OP is not black.
I was a very successful manager for a retail company at one point. I was so successful that I was flown to the company headquarters with a few other managers from all over the US for 2 weeks. I got a free hotel room, and per diem money. All I had to do was go to a couple of classes everyday.
The one class that has always stuck in my mind was a race relations class. The teacher was a very tall thin black man, and he started by calling on students and asking “what is one way that you and I are different?”.
This line of questioning went on for 7 or 8 students. He got answers like “You’re bald, and I have hair”, and “you wear glasses, and I don’t”. Finally someone said “you’re black and I’m white”. The teacher goes “AHHH HAAA! Finally! Now, why is that so hard to say? It shouldn’t be. After all I am black and you are white. We are different in this way, and as long as that difference isn’t being said as a negative then there isn’t a problem with it”.
Also, as someone who grew up in a city where the population majority is black, and currently lives in a city that is majority black. People have to make that distinction all the time, and it goes both ways.
TLDR it’s ok to describe someone using their skin color as long as it’s not being used to disparage someone. While I understand the context of where we are. I don’t find anything about OP’s post racist.
I don't think mentioning it is inherently racist(y'know, without the added context that it's fucking 4chan), it's just that it's irrelevant, and therefore kind of weird. As they mentioned, if the person were notably tall, that also wouldn't have any relevance, so unless you're just specifically calling attention to it because it's strange to you, which would be racist if used when describing someone's race, it's very strange to just suddenly say that they are that adjective without it being necessary for the story.