Odd sort of ethical connundrum

[charliesmum]

So, we're watching Wheel of Fortune, and of the three contestants, one was African American. At the end of the show, Charlie says, 'The brown-faced boy didn't win anything.' He's used 'brown-faced' before in describing people, but it's a fairly new thing.

I don't personally see anything wrong with it. I am confident that Charlie makes no distinction between people other then what their personality warrants, but I'm wondering, do you think it could be construed as rude or offensive? Should I correct him? What would I say?

Comments

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

You know, I almost like his referring to black people that way, because it's so clearly like - he looks at a person with brown skin and sees... a person with brown skin. Not a "black person", with the whole boatload of assumptions and stereotypes that come along with that... When he gets older it would be problematic for him to reduce race to a skin color, yes, but honestly, I think a lot of my own internalized racism comes from the fact that I was taught from an early age that "black" was an inherent part of people's identity and it meant this thing and that thing and the other thing. I guess I think it's kind of neat for a nine-year-old to look at someone of a different race and make no assumptions other than that their skin is a different color. (Or face, in his phrasing.)

I mean I know race *is* part of people's identity, but I feel like I would have done better to think of black people as "people with brown skin" when I was younger, and then learned more about the identity aspects when I was older. I don't know, maybe growing up in a racist household has messed me up on this point. And none of this is addressing your question, which is, are people likely to take offense? And I think it would depend on the person and I am also not the person to be asking, so I will be quiet. But I guess I think it's kind of neat that Charlie thinks that way.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

That's kind of how I feel. I asked him yesterday what color skin he had, and he said "Peach".