30 Ways White People Say 'Black People' Without Actually Saying 'Black People'

[Tucker08087]

11. I've actually not heard of all of these

But it reminds me of something that happened on the local football field. Now let me explain. My town is predominantly white. There are very few minorities and my son happens to be one of them. (He’s adopted.) While he was playing Pop Warner football, he had a coach named Will. Coach Will is gorgeous. He’s about 6 foot five and built like a god, with a deep, sexy, kind voice that would make you swoon. He’s also black.
So I was sitting in the bleachers one evening as a group of fathers was discussing who would be coaching their sons. They couldn’t remember Will’s name, so they were trying to describe him. “Big guy, bald but hair would be dark, muscular, athletic, 3 kids of his own. It went on for quite some time and I eventually figured out it was Will, and waited with curiosity to see what would happen. Someone finally said, “Kinda dark,” which started a comparison of tans and “Like as tan as Bob over there?” type questions. Finally, I said, “Are you talking about Will?” Oh yes! That’s his name! Of course! Before they moved on, I did have to add, “And guys? He knows he’s black.”
I wasn’t sure how to view this whole thing. There was an obvious discomfort in identifying him as being black, whereas I don’t think there would have been if he were a woman, a redhead, or even a fat guy. That left me uneasy. But there also was no trace of the terms above or racial slurs, and I, having lived here my whole life, see this as a giant positive and a great improvement over the generations.
Because I see things from both the eyes of a white person but also through my son’s eyes, I am keenly aware of racial relations in my small town. I had such hope, when he was younger, that perhaps the generation of his children would finally end the divisiveness. I truly believed that things were moving in the right direction. The jerk back to 1960s type bigotry since Trumpism has caused me whiplash as well as heartache, for our country as well as for my son, who grew up with a sense of pride of his ancestry and is confused that suddenly people feel okay about reacting to his looks in an openly negative way.
I’ve now gotten completely off-topic. My apologies. But I guess I wanted to say in small town America, these terms are not as common. I am happy that we have moved on from slurs and the above side-slurs, but discomfort has caused some people to just pretend the differences don’t exist. They are differences in appearance, like short, tall, bald, curly-haired, freckled, etc, but until that discomfort fades, it will always mean more than that, somewhere under the pleasantries.