I’ll mostly be talking about “black people” and “white people” in this post, because that’s what I see the most of relative to the particular sort of racism, but I’m sure it applies to others as well.
This is going to be a rant about how black and white are COLORS, NOT personality types. One of the reasons racism is still alive in everyday life is because people have labeled black and white as personality types, coming up with terms such as “oreo” for people who are “black on the outside but white on the inside” and “wigger” for people who “are white on the outside but black on the inside.” Phrases like “he/she is so white” or “damn girl, you must be black on the inside with dance moves like that” do more to keep racism alive than people realize. And they hurt. It makes it so people with black skin don’t want to do well in school because then they would be “white” on the inside. White is a skin color, not a personality type. Black is a skin color, not a personality type. I can’t express that enough. Saying things like “that’s such a white thing to do” has become an insult to people with black or white skin, it seems.
Why can’t people with black skin be smart without getting called white? Why can’t people with white skin dance well without getting called black? Why the separation? It’s just another way to separate white people and black people instead of integrating and just calling everyone people. There are all kinds of personality types that go beyond race, skin color, and gender for that matter. We all feel the same emotions, we all have different skills and interests, so why is it that some are associated with “white” personality and some associated with “black” personality. How about just saying “hey, that guy makes good grades” instead of “hey, that guy is so white”?
Skin color is a PHYSICAL trait. It’s a way to PHYSICALLY describe someone. Just like eye color, hair color, and shirt color.
Smart, nice, mean, hard-ass, caring, determined, focused, spiteful, loving, etc are ways to describe someones personality. Notice that white, black, and brown are not in that list because they are NOT personality traits.
I’m calling for a stop to using skin color as a personality type. It’s not. Someone who is smart and focused could be white skinned, black skinned, or brown skinned. Someone who is a mean hard-ass could be white skinned, black skinned, or brown skinned. Personality types come in all color skin. That’s why they are two separate things. Calling someone white or black for any reason other than the color of their skin just adds to the discrimination and separation of the two races. If we’re going to grow and become stronger as a community, we need to stop viewing things this way. We need to see skin color as skin color and not judge a personality based on that or label a personality as a color. Please, stop.
Please share any of your own thoughts, observations, ideas, personal stories, etc. because I love reading them. Do you agree or disagree with my point? Why? What similar phrases have you heard that you think are harmful?
Thoughts from a badass figuring out how to conquer life. 
PREACH!! Thank you !! This conversation should be killed already. If we identify with skin colour, then we’ve already created a chasm, and an ‘other’. That’s where racism is born.
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Funny, because I just wrote an article something similar. I haven’t post it yet here, in there I share my own personal experiences on the matter.
My view is that we are all human beings first, and we’re not define by skin color, gender, culture and/or religious beliefs.
I believe that one of the reason behind racism is fear and at times ignorance.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
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Thank you for the read and the comment. I agree that ignorance is certainly a factor. I look forward to reading your post on the subject 🙂
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I think that using skin color as a categorization exposes the fact that racial stereotypes dominate first impressions and preconceived notions of others. I agree that the world would be a much better place if individuals could judge others based on their merits as an individual instead of stereotyped assumptions. I mean as the world globalizes this becomes increasingly difficult. Indians and non-Indians try to stereotype me as Indian at first sight. Then Indians become angry because I don’t conform to their expectations and Americans are more accepting of me because I’m basically like them. So I firmly believe that as the world globalizes, this ability to categorize personality traits based on race will diminish. However the black and white scenario has a lot to do with economic and political discrimination; the final barrier to eliminating this sort of problem is establishing representative equality as a collective of people instead of incentivizing agendas based on racial categories.
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I agree entirely.
You brought up a point on a more global scale and I would say that issue has more to do with culture than race, although I guess their intermixed. People who are born in different cultures, like India, are more expected to follow that culture, even when they leave, which I think is starting to become an outdated notion. Being from the South, I’m expected to have a country accent, like iced tea, and gobble crawfish like crazy, but I don’t. I have definitely gotten a lot of funny looks from people in the South when I say I don’t like iced tea or that crawfish are “okay” lol. I think the fitting in aspect just has to do with the idea that “you were born here, so you should act like it.” What is understandable, but not excusable. The thing I don’t understand is when two different color people are born and raised in the same culture, but separate themselves so vigorously.
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