What is the right way to refer to someone with dark brown skin who is not African American?

Question

I had a conversation recently where someone was deathly afraid of referring to a person by their skin color. It went something like this:

Coworker: One of the people on the other team came by and said he wanted talk with you.

Me: What was his name?

Coworker: I don't remember. He was kind of tall and had short hair.

Me: Not sure who it was. What else?

Coworker: He was at Mary's retirement party and gave a speech.

Me: Still not sure.

Coworker: [leans in and whispers] He's black.

The coworker clearly thought it was inappropriate to refer to the person as "black", but felt it necessary to say because no other descriptors were working. They couldn't have referred to this person as "African American", since they just moved from the Caribbean (the person forgot what country they were from, but knew it wasn't Africa).

What would be the proper way to refer to a person with dark brown skin who is not African American?

This is in the United States. If regional differences matter, this is the Midwest (Ohio), and I'd like to know if it is different in different parts of the country.

Answer 1

Use black (adjective, the color) itself to describe the person, if absolutely necessary, i.e. black person or dark-skinned or dark-complexioned.

Never refer to them or address them as a black (noun). And completely avoid terms like negro, nigger, colored etc.

An example from BBC News.

Benedict Cumberbatch has apologised after using the term "coloured" to describe black actors. He was on a US talk show, explaining that there are more opportunities for black actors in Hollywood than the UK.

I say this from my Indian perspective, and experience otherwise having been to many countries.

Too much "political correctness" will only lead to more confusion, problems, and does more harm than good.

Answer 2

In the situation you're in, where the point is to use a distinguishing feature to describe the person and you can reasonably trust that they have some African heritage, the best term is "black". This is, by no means, unanimous. You will find some people who feel that any distinguishing of a person by their appearance is inappropriate. Sometimes, however, it becomes at least useful to be able to do this. You may also be better able to use the term as one of several -

The person I saw was a beautiful, tall, black woman with long, straightened hair.

Note, it's one thing if you're talking about them to someone else. It's another to use this term for them when you're around them. The best person to ask this question - is your coworker. If you inform yourself, you'll be better able to share your information and avoid offending them.

For some levity in a generally serious situation, I'm going to call on our friends at Saturday Night Live who, just this week, briefly addressed this in a special summer "Weekend Update" in a commentary to the NAACP. At the very beginning of this segment, Michael Che, a black comedian, speaks:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has issued its first ever travel advisory. Warning people of color of discrimination in Missouri. First of all, NAACP, stop calling us "colored people". We picked a color a long time ago - it's "black", okay?

While I don't think that Michael Che speaks for the entirety of people of African descent, he's got a loud voice.

As I said before, some people think that these words are inappropriate and that colors how people act because they don't want to sound racist. I'm going to guess that this contingent is why your coworker acted the way they did. When you read things like this article on The Spectator, it makes it difficult to know how to describe someone who is black. I'll note that this is from the point of view of a white British male.

Apparently the correct term in the USA is not even ‘black’, but ‘people of colour’. Forgive me, but there is no meaningful semantic difference between ‘people of colour’ and ‘coloured people’. Why does one offend, then, when the other does not? Isn’t this a case of confected outrage and manufactured sensitivity?

The other problem with "people of color" is that it means "anyone not white", which isn't useful to describe a black person in your situation. If your coworker said "person of color", they could be talking about someone who is Asian, Hispanic, Indian... anything non-white.

I found an interesting discussion with a story nearly identical to yours, though asking a different question:

I understand why White people do this–fear of being labeled as a Racist. My question is, does it really offend Black people if someone describes them as Black? Or is that just White people’s perception?

One responder, Emmaline, makes this related remark:

I use the term "Black" because not everyone identifies as African --even if their primary ancestors may have originated from Africa, their family has lived for many generations in the Caribbean Islands, for example, and only identify with that culture.

Someone else, sativaah responds to this

People of Color (POC)

... There are a lot of opinions in that thread, so you have a lot to consider from a variety of people.

Answer 3

Dilute the term's perceived offensiveness by making it part of an accurate description:

"You know, Tom is the about 6'1" dark-brown guy, short hair, round glasses, favors black suits, handles customer X in the other team, etc"

Note: only mention positives, if he has a gut, is anoying, or stuff like that, sweep it under the rug.

Now if you have two persons in your team who fit the description down to skin tone, clothes and everything and one looks Indian and the other looks more African, then you're gonna have to use the appropriate term, stop beating around the bush... Unless the Indian is called Rajesh Koothrapali, in which case mentioning the name should suffice. But if the name is John Smith, some information would be missing...

Don't ever use the word "People of color", you will sound like a clown, unless you are a statistician and want to define a demographic in a study or something.

Answer 4

The term I would use in such a situation is "dark." That is a catchall term that includes Africans, most Asians, Middle Easterners, and even Europeans from the Mediterranean countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc.) basically anyone who isn't of northern or western European background.

Because it is such a broad term, it is less offensive than "black" or "yellow" or "redskin," etc.

In this case, it is also possible to refer to your "dark" friend as a "Caribbean," which identifies his culture, and is actually more important than the color of his skin.

Answer 5

By Name, Role, or Title

The correct way to refer to someone you work with is by name, or by their title if they have a distinct title.

Any time you start describing someone by their appearance in a professional setting you are opening yourself up to having what you say misconstrued or unintentionally reveal your biases(real or perceived). Instead go for non-divisive descriptors like their name, role, title etc.

In this case, when the coworker came by your friend should have said something like "I am sorry I do not remember your name." Or "I am not sure ill be around how about leaving him a message from my note pad." Either one of these avoids that unfortunate exchange.

When someone starts trying to describe someone to you, it's best to try to ask questions that lead them away from physical descriptions. The reason is there is always the potential that the person will describe them using some characteristic that may seem, to someone just overhearing that part, inappropriate. Your being part of that conversation may result in sensitivity training, or even some sort of censure at work like a written warning for harassment.

So after the first exchange where the coworker tried to use a physical description I would have asked specific questions like:

• What team are they on?
• What do they do?
• Who do they work with?

These questions are likely to be more useful than any physical description anyway.

Answer 6

Your question title is somewhat confusing in that 'someone with dark brown skin who is not African American' can possibly be interpreted as a somewhat dark person not from African ancestry (such as Indians from India, which is what I am) but that is is not what you refer to in the explanation of your question.

If you really mean 'how to describe a dark-skin-color individual of African origin who is from neither Africa nor America but the Caribbean', then there is a term called Afro-Caribbean which means exactly that person. See the many descriptions and definitions of the word here:

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Afro-Caribbean

If the person is from Africa you can call them African which refers to the continent and if they are actually from India you call them Indian.

Answer 7

I use every other term other than skin color or ethnicity to describe a person. As a matter of fact, I haven't had to use skin color as a physical descriptor since I was young and didn't know any better. If it really is difficult to distinguish between two people on the basis of location, role, clothing, height or weight, I describe eye color and hair color/quality. For hair quality, I never use the term "nappy" which is derogatory.

Answer 8

This is a question that may not have a "single correct answer".

There have been a few different iterations of what is/was politically correct, or socially acceptable, over the years.

It seems, at the moment, POC or Person of Color is an acceptable term in academic and activist circles.

The term "person of color" (plural: people of color, persons of color; sometimes abbreviated POC) is used primarily in the United States to describe any person who is not white. The term encompasses all non-white peoples, emphasizing common experiences of systemic racism. The term may also be used with other collective categories of people such as "communities of color", "men of color", and "women of color".