Does it make sense that we call each other Black and White?

[Silver7]

Okay so if I were to write a story or create a fictional universe with a lot of White and Black people in it, I would want to pause and ask the question. Does it even make sense that we call each other White or Black? ...I mean in the east a very light skinned Asian doesn't call them self a White person and a dark skinned Indian doesn't call them self a Black person but yet here in the west we refer to ourselves as a color. When we call each other Black and White aren't we just feeding into more racism

(Words from a song I once heard: I'M NOT GONNA SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE BEING A COLOR)

[KevinReijnders]

In short, no it makes no sense. But it wasn't designed to make sense, just to create and justify racism and power over others.

Now I watch as this topic will slowly spiral out of control and needs a mod to force close and hide it.

[kyupol]

The external form is just a temporary identity. You are NOT White, Black, Asian, Latino, etc. You're infinite consciousness experiencing reality as whatever it is.

[moontokkym]

I don't think at this point changing those words would do anything? Like (to not racist people) words like "black" "white", etc... to describe ethnicities are value-neutral in the same way "latino/latina" or "asian" are just descriptors.

They're rarely actually colour accurate to the people's skin tone but culturally they're useful to describe people because we all have a general idea of what colour is meant by the words and it's not offensive to anyone to be called that to my knowledge, whereas stuff like calling asian people "yellow" absolutely is.

Race as we know it is a social construct, but as humans we're always going to need ways to describe ourselves in succint, easy to understand ways, those words have come through the ages to mean kind of amorphous blobs of different coloured people on a sliding scale where none of the groups are totally distinct from eachother anyway, but it is useful to help talk about how one group is causing harm to the others through historical tyranny and continued misuse of power.

However if you want to worldbuild a place where that cultural divide never happened and people describe their different skintones in another way, then go for it. Like I can totally imagine a robot world where if they had to describe an individual they might mention their skintone being an average RGB score. Do be mindful that though the in-universe world may have conquered racism, this one hasn't, and it is in the context of this world that your story will be read, so it's important if you're venturing into these subjects to have a variety of sensitivity readers have a look and give feedback from their perspective.

[Leyelle]

I don't think it's feeding more into racism because many people, at least in the black diaspora, have embraced the term black and love it. black is a beautiful color. now in theory, it doesn't make sense, but I love being black, and I have no problem with being called black. I think white is a beautiful color as well, though, theoretically, it doesn't make sense unless a person has albinism. It's not that big a deal to me, but if a person doesn't want to be called black or white, I don't have a problem calling them by their ethnicities. (as a note though, some dark skinned indians ARE considered black by other Indians, but in that case, many of them are not happy about it. Others however, like Seema Hari, have embraced the term "Kali" which is a label often used for dark skinned people.)

As James Brown said "Say it loud. I'm black and I'm proud."

[NickRowler]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[MelancholicOtaku]

Not really ,race is a social construct. However we have the need to categorize everything lol.

But do I have a issue being called black,nope matter of fact I wouldn’t have it any other way

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Of course!
When someone is named like, Jack Black and Walter White, it's normal to call them like Mr. Black or Mr. White regardless of race and ethnicity. If they're closer maybe they go like "Hey, yo Black wassup?" and "Oh, didn't see you there, White!"
Same thing with Brown, Green, and Gray.

[NGChloe]

Sure, you just have to word it correctly. Though i tend to say brown instead of black

[thepenmonster]

[Zhengo]

As mentioned, race is a social construct and the terms black, white, etc. may not even accurately encompass everyone within that race's skintone. In fact, the term of "race" to refer to groups of people only became common around the 16-17th century, and it is believed by most anthropologists and socialists that the concept arose as a justification for European imperialism and slavery by separating people into "superior" and "inferior" races. Keep in mind though, even before the modern idea of race existed, the act of a group of people discriminating against another group of people based on arbitrary combinations of physical features and place of origin still existed.

When making a fictional world with people of different skin tones and ethnicities, you would probably have to consider the social and cultural environment and if it would have the same dynamics as our world. Would the circumstances you set up in your world lead to the same effects where groups of people would be socially categorized as "black", "white", etc.? Or would it make more sense for people to categorize by only "ethnicity" (I'm assuming that it would be fantasy ethnicities based on the fact this is a fictional world)

For example, I could see this categorization of people making sense if, mirroring our real world history, there would be a period in time where several different groups of people, all within a specific region and all having most of the population share similar physical features, engaged in imperialistic activity against other regions. Let's say one of the most defining physical traits that separates the different regions is skintone. Then I could see the color-coded categorization.

Giving a counter-example, maybe the defining traits separating different regions would be one region where most of the people have horns, and another region where most of the people don't have horns. Then, maybe in that scenario, the people might be separated into terms like "Horns" and "No-Horns"

[Silver7]

Would the circumstances you set up in your world lead to the same effects where groups of people would be socially categorized as "black", "white", etc.?

No White people would be called "Halos" the same halos angels have on top of their head and Black people would be called "Jinns" I got the idea from the movie Kazaam when Shaquille O'Neal said "What you're talking about is a Jinn, a Jinn can do anything"

Also so you said one group of people have horns and the other group does not, very interesting. You're right the two groups might even consider themselves to be two different races even if DNA proves that they are all the same race, sentient beings really need to get over themselves and start living as one.