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[Stroggy]

Hmm you may be wrong there, since the first time I pondered on it was when I was reading a newspaper article and it read: "A black man has been arrested" and I thought to myself "that isn't a very correct way of phrasing it" this thought was quickly followed by "but how would one phrase it?"

[efthimios]

A man?

[Sebatianos]

Originally posted by efthimios@Jul 19 2005, 07:59 PM
A man?

Exactly - or a suspect/purpetrator.
It shouldn't even matter what the skin color (or even the gender) was.

[Stroggy]

Well surely there must be some way to describe a man and his skincolour in a decent way. What will you use if you want to describe a person in an official document.

[omg]

when it comes to official documents it is country of ethnic origin. you wouldent say black man you would say north african or african european ect.
in a police suspects report im less sure what they do. on tv. they will say a black man if talking about an unaprehended suspect.
like with an application form you get a list of ethnicitys or the old *other : please state* option to cover them as incase you are a half chineese half african. there are so many possible ethnicitys that tey just put the most common on application forms.

[Stroggy]

Originally posted by omg@Jul 19 2005, 07:09 PM
you would say north african

You can't say North African when the man is born in Europe.
Anyway, we are off topic.

[Sebatianos]

Well last post by me:

There are basically only three races:
cocasion
negroid
mongaloid

But that's so undetermined.
BTW - what should be wrong with describing a man as black (or white, yellow, red, brown)? I know it doesn't sound scientifical, but there's nothing wrong with it - unless a word has been misused so much it gotten a negative conotation.

[omg]

erm dude.... jeesh.... mongoloid has become a very negative term over here. and what about the indians? they aint *mongoloids* i dont think.
seems inevitable that any discussion about modern terrorism will end up becoming a discussion about racial definition as the terrorists themselfs play a lot on racial definitions.

[Stroggy]

Most whites don't have a problem with being called white (some even wear silly white hats to show how happy they are to be white), however black people do.

And caucasian isn't a correct scientifical word either anymore, don't know why really.

[omg]

stands to reosen that if you call a black person white they gonna be pissed.