Politically correct nation.

[Wiegieboard]

I can only find christmas cards with seasons greeting on it. we should all write to a council claiming to be a religious group that finds engines and mechanics offensive to see if they ban cars or whatever. Hundreds of letters lol.

[TheUnfitOne]

1.A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.

2.A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race.

3.A genealogical line; a lineage.

4.Humans considered as a group.



"The notion of race is nearly as problematic from a scientific point of view as it is from a social one. European physical anthropologists of the 17th and 18th centuries proposed various systems of racial classifications based on such observable characteristics as skin color, hair type, body proportions, and skull measurements, essentially codifying the perceived differences among broad geographic populations of humans. The traditional terms for these populationsCaucasoid (or Caucasian), Mongoloid, Negroid, and in some systems Australoidare now controversial in both technical and nontechnical usage, and in some cases they may well be considered offensive. (Caucasian does retain a certain currency in American English, but it is used almost exclusively to mean “white” or “European” rather than “belonging to the Caucasian race,” a group that includes a variety of peoples generally categorized as nonwhite.) The biological aspect of race is described today not in observable physical features but rather in such genetic characteristics as blood groups and metabolic processes, and the groupings indicated by these factors seldom coincide very neatly with those put forward by earlier physical anthropologists. Citing this and other pointssuch as the fact that a person who is considered black in one society might be nonblack in anothermany cultural anthropologists now consider race to be more a social or mental construct than an objective biological fact"

(copied from the dictionary)

[Smith]

The UnfitOne is entirely correct, Lissssaa is kinda correct. the word itself is pretty useless, imho, as it attempts to cover issues and topics that could (and probably should) be categorised differently. e.g., to use UnfitOne's 4 points:
1) Genotype (i think this is the term - i'm not a scientist)
2) Nationality
3) Lineage
4) Species (probably the most acceptable use for the term "race")

[Smith]

if white, black, asian are races.. why arnt chinese then?

please tell me you're joking....

[Smith]

why just the south-east asians? what's wrong with the rest of the asian world?

[Smith]

look, why use one word to mean several different things when there are several perfectly good words that you could use instead, which would avoid this confusion?

[Hywel Teague]

explain to me then someone please.. if we are classed as white.. black.. asian.. we all look different from each other yes? as in teh race classes to each other.. what are chinese japanese etc etc classed as then.. as in ethnicity they also are kinda a race..

I would suggest reading The Unfit One's quoted definition of race, and also look at Smith's summary, it explains how the term is used and should answer your (pretty unclear and hidden) question.

am i just being really blonde..??? i dont care if they are specifically linked to a country i want to know what are they classed as as they look different to whites, blacks, asians etc...

who looks different to black, white or Asian? You mean everyone else?

The more specific classifications used as opposed to "black"/ "white"/ Asian are often geographic in nature rather than based upon appearance

A brief list of examples include:
Caucasian
Slavic
Middle Eastern
African (often used with suffixes such as African-American, Afro-Caribbean to localise them further)
Sub-Indian Continent
Polynesian

Complications arise when using these terms, as geographic terms are often accruate to describe their location but not their ethnicity.

ie A Jewish man living in London could be described as a Caucasian if he is light skinned, but could well be of Middle Eastern blood. Same goes for someone from the Mediterranean who has blond hair, they could be well be of North African descent.

The very concept of 'race' is a minefield. Using ethnicity or nationality is far easier, and more often less offensive all round, and thats not coming from someone who classes themselves as particularly PC. A little consideration is required before making rash statements.

[Hywel Teague]

I see you've done some research while I was busy typing up my post. Nice one

[Hywel Teague]

lol @ asking a mixed race person what their "stance" is on parents of different nationalities

[droc]

As a recovering racist (thanks to SWS, you guys showed me the error of my ways) I find the racism particularly strong in this thread, right from the very first page where there was a distinction made between Muslims and british people (Aren't there any British Muslims?) it's been fairly consistent.

Thank god for the enlightened people like Leigh and Doc Oc who have helped to keep this discussion reasonable and fight off the racism.

DROC