Questions tagged [racial-issues]
For questions regarding race, ethnicity, and origin. This tag is not uniquely applied to racism or discrimination, it applies to any questions with the aforementioned criteria.
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How do I support a friend on Social Media who contacted me directly about something I don't want to be involved in?
This has to do with the events going on regarding racism and discrimination. A good friend of mine is black. He recently posted something on social media saying "if you say 'all lives matter' ...
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How could I have better handled telling this minority woman I liked her cultural hairstyle?
Background
This happened in Netherlands. I have some mixed ancestry. I mostly look like a Dutch person, except for my curly bush of hair and my olive skin. In school I got bullied a lot because of my ...
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Happy Juneteenth?
I recently learned about Juneteenth. For anyone not familiar:
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas ...
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5
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1
answer
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How to respond to people who don't believe where you're from? [closed]
I've observed situations like this occurring to a friend of mine (let's call him X):
Stranger: Where are you from?
X: [insert southeast asian country here]
Stranger: Are you sure?
...
On ...
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2
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How to open up a conversation with an SO about a possibly inappropriate action?
My husband and I are both white. My husband recently asked a black woman if he could touch her hair. She said yes, and he was delighted. This woman works at a gas station we frequent, so we have seen ...
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2
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Telling my cousin that she might want to learn more about cultural appropriation
The other day, I was at my cousin’s home and her daughter was dressed up like "an Indian" (her word to designate a Native American "traditional" outfit).
This made me uncomfortable ...
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1
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What would be the correct reaction in such situation? [closed]
First need to tell that I am an Arab muslim and I live and have a fiance in a European country. We've been dating for about 3 months. We have a really good romantic relationship, no conflicts have ...
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0
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How to make a friend stop his racists jokes? [duplicate]
I am in a group of friends of 5 people. We're all white, male, in our mid to late twenties. The group was formed from working together on the same group projects at the university. Obviously, over ...
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Dealing with unintentionally racist/offensive behavior of new country [closed]
I'm American, considering taking a job in the Netherlands. My research into living into the Netherlands has predominantly been great, except for one very worrisome thing. Zwarte Piet. I was looking at ...
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2
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How do I deal with a coworker who keeps making racist comments? [closed]
I had a former co worker say something I was offended by. (I’m African American and he’s Caucasian.)
I told him to be careful wiping down the mantle over a fireplace because it was hot and I didn’t ...
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0
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Is "Black American" an acceptable term in the US? [closed]
In the comments section on this question, someone took offense at calling african-americans black (because not all blacks are african). Then took offense at using the term african-american (because ...
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What skin tone emoji should I use in Slack reaction? [closed]
There is a feature in Slack called emoji reactions. It allows users to respond to any message on Slack with an emoji reaction.
(source: slack.help)
Also, you can choose a skin tone for your emojis:
(...
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13
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2
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Friendly co worker suddenly distant/rude because of different views
There is a very nice co worker at my office. Every morning he comes to my desk and we chat for about fifteen minutes about how our kids are doing and whatnot. I really enjoy these morning ...
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0
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Should I try to react to behind-the-back insults in my partner's minority outreach program? [closed]
Relevant identity context, I'm white, my partner can be reasonably seen to a stranger as white, and both of us are genderqueer and LGBTQ+ identifying.
I work at a college in Boston, and my partner (...
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1
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How should I construct an inquiry to clarify dubious comment about my appearance? [closed]
I was at a party and someone said:
“if you had kids with a white girl, they’d look like [the guy next to me]”
... along with “you two have similar mannerisms.” It didn’t sound mean-spirited in ...
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11
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How can I effectively tell people that their defensiveness over me bringing up an issue is part of the issue?
Seems like it would be kind of self evident, but it's something that I encounter fairly often when talking to some folks about issues of discrimination and bias that drives me crazy...
When someone ...
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5
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Responding to inappropriate personal questions at an interview?
I am an American living in Germany and had an interview with a manager of a company yesterday. At one point, the interviewer asked me about why I chose to come to Germany. I explained the reason, and ...
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4
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How can I take issue with inappropriate statements without offending people?
I live in North America but in the particular area I live in there are more Asians than Caucasians. I sometimes hear things I find racist but am afraid to speak up fearing a negative response.
Just ...
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How to politely deal with white people wanting to talk to me about racism/race issues
Now this is a sensitive topic, and I do not wish to offend anyone's sensibilities - but at the same time, I want to know of an effective way of dealing with the disproportionate emotional work ...
user16607
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How to recover from being falsely seen as a racist?
So here is the story:
It was a Saturday night and my wife and I were sitting outside, drinking. We've already had a few drinks and we were talking, listening to music, in a good mood if you will. I ...
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How can I recover from an accusation of racism at work?
The context
In February last year I started a new job. I started the same day and in the same position as another person we'll call Ed. Our offices are across the hall from one another. I'm a ...
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How to deal with racism in shops and restaurants?
I'm Israeli. I travel to the UK about twice a year. I generally try to be polite and pleasant around people, so very often a smiling waitress in a café or an assistant in a shop would ask me where I'm ...
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How to respond to a friend insulting her own racial group? [closed]
Here's the scenario:
I have a friend who had/has really abusive parents who are part of a tightly knit expatriate South Asian community from a certain minority ethnic/religious group here in our ...
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How do I anticipate whether using the expression "of color" will be received favourably or not? [closed]
I am European, and I seem to understand that in North America it's particularly common to use the expression "Person of color" instead of, for example, "Black person".
I understand that it's meant ...
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3
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Should I speak in Japanese or English to the "foreign-looking" kombini employee? [closed]
I am not Japanese but I usually speak in Japanese with everyone, because it is the language I use all day long at work (I live in Japan).
At the register of a convenience store in Tokyo downtown, I ...
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70
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14
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How do I respond to racist remarks from a coworker?
Recently, I've had a couple short conversations with a coworker that have taken a racist turn, and I'm not really sure how to respond. We don't work directly together, but often see each other in ...
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6
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How to handle a younger sibling being verbally bullied, with sometimes racist remarks, at school?
My younger sister tells me she's having trouble at her new middle school; one of these is that a boy, who tends to be the class clown and troublemaker, makes fun of her underbite. I told her to notify ...
user182
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How to react when someone makes a racially charged joke about their own heritage [closed]
I have a friend who is a research scientist of Mexican descent. Before a work meeting, as he was wiping off the whiteboards to begin a presentation, he joked "This is the part that my people are best ...
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What is the right way to refer to someone with dark brown skin who is not African American?
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 ...
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5
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How to respond to an older colleague who uses sub-optimal phrasing when referring to other racial groups?
I'm in a community organization in Texas that interacts with and reaches out to people of all ethnic groups, though most of the members are "white". I'm a new member of this organization and recently ...
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How can I respond to "It's because I'm <historically oppressed quality>" as a rebuttal to a request?
Occasionally I hear or encounter "it's because I'm <historically oppressed quality>" as a response to an objectionable request to the claimant. The claimant is usually a minor who in my ...
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