The world is crazy . . . and I like it

[rowens]

Now I had a conversation. I don't want to be racist, but I grew up in a hick town, everybody is racist. So I'm somebody who nobody here likes. . . . But . . . The point I'm getting at. I had a conversation. Black people have spent over a hundred years trying to get white people to not calll them colored people. But now they keep saying they want to be called people of color. . . And that just seems dumb to me. You spend a hundred years fighting the term 'colored' in favor of being called 'people of color'. What's the difference?

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The world is stupid. Slavery was horrible. But I think that we, collective, we are making things worse . . . all the time.

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I know I used the word 'they'. Reading it now it sounds bad. But this us or them mentality is everywhere, I'm doing my best to fight it. But it's there.

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I keep rereading what I wrote, and it sounds bad. I think that's the problem. Everybody is afraid to say anything. Because life is hard. You're going to hurt somebody no matter what you say. . . . I had a conversation that turned out bad. I'm sorry for venting. But, hell, it might make a good conversation.

[billy]

many years ago on yahoo site i ran i used the term "coloured people" innocently i might add; i never knew any other way to say coloured people. i got slaughtered for it. first off i was told "we're black people" that was it the fuckin world descended on my head. maybe i was naive but i couldn't believe it. i tried to defend myself but to no avail. in some respects i agree with you. we all need slightly thicker skins and we all need to be aware of our cultural differences. there's a small passage on the edge of racism that isn't racism at all, it verges more on us being uninformed than us being racist.

[rowens]

I used the term black Irish the other day while taking to a girl who's Irish and has brown hair and brown eyes. I didn't know that that was offensive. And the thing is, the person who heard me and got offended said that black Irish was offensive to African Americans. Which made me even more confused.

[billy]

i have to say it's a term i've not heard of

[busker]

I’ve heard black Irish used, it’s to distinguish the gingers from the brunettes, nothing to do with black skin. However, as a colonised people, the Irish were also derided as the “blacks of Europe” and hence black Irish might have got a negative connotation. Like calling Italians “Guineas” - at least in Godfather.

[rowens]

I heard Colin Ferrell, if that's how you spell his name, called black Irish one time. It was a woman complimenting his looks. So I had the silly idea that calling this woman black Irish was complimenting her.