Why Isn't It Considered Racist

[lankeela]

when news stories point out that people are black or people of colour - twice this week stories have centred on someone's ethnicity. The woman who trekked to the South Pole was the 'first woman of colour' to do so and now Sidney Poitier is being hailed as the first black actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor. Surely that is being racist by pointing it out?

[Mamyalynne]

Were both facts true?

If so then I don't see it as racist.

[Peter Pedant]

I think it was part of the news management for the girl on the glacier. I mean christ she just doing something they started doing in 1850 and the eskimos ( er Norf Pole) for yonks

mamie in Gone with the wind got an oscar didnt she ( not male lead)
First anything I suppose is worth a note

the thing that springs out to me is the incredz beeb attitude to Novak Djokovic - either he had a visa which didnt allow a medical exemption ( out) or one that was lawfully granted ( stays)

instead they have gone for people dancing wrapped in Srb flags ( cute huh, the Serbian for Serbia ( srb) doesnt have a vowel in it) - tra-la tra-la, pickies of a basic hotel room, a detainee who has been there 5 months and doesnt like the food, and a mouthy mum who is saying he is being crucified ( coinciding with christs birth in the srb church)

[Peter Pedant]

// Were both facts true?
If so then I don't see it as racist.//

blimey bizarre even for AB - so the blacking out of faces on the black and white minstrel show ( they did - it was true) wasn a racist icon

oh well - AB near midnight - the world goes on turning

[Mamyalynne]

Peter , stop being so daft - I asked were both the facts in the OP true?? Nothing else.

[andy-hughes]

It's not racist to advise ethnicity if it's relevant to the story - as it was in both cases, only if it is used to offend or demean the subject.

[albaqwerty]

The lady is being interviewed on Talkradio as I type. Quite an impressive woman, she says she is now confident to say she is a woman of colour and wishes other people to challenge themselves.
She's still at the South Pole!

No, to answer the question as the news is reporting a fact.

[lankeela]

But does colour really come into the achievements? Why are they not just 'people' - we don't report on 'white' people having reached the North Pole or 'yellow' people climbing the Great Wall of China. It seems people don't want to be singled out for their colour unless they decide they do. What happened to us all being equal?

[royfromaus]

crikey

[Barsel]

Perhaps it's because not a lot of people of colour achieve these things?
I do find quite often that if it concerns a crime, it's not often reported as being a person of colour that has committed it.

[Mamyalynne]

Feats of all types have long been qualified in some way - should they be, well perhaps not.

The question you posed was 'Is it racist?' - that's the question I answered.

[tonyav]

blimey bizarre even for AB - so the blacking out of faces on the black and white minstrel show ( they did - it was true) wasn a racist icon

LOL, bet you wasn't saying that when they were on TV ( all those years ago ).

[Barsel]

No I don't think it's racist either, but it's almost as if someone is telling us that people of colour can do well in life, but we already know that.
I think Lankeela is right, it doesn't usually point out the colour of a persons skin if that person is white, so I really don't know why it's pointed out if the are not.

[THECORBYLOON]

Both were "firsts" so their colours were relevant.

[JimF]

Sydney Poitier achieved something that no other black actor had ever done by winning an Oscar. Up to that point, Hollywood was an extremely white world and, in many ways, still is.

That's racism. Describing Poitier as a black man isn't.

[archibaldy]

// But does colour really come into the achievements? //

Was being black a barrier to that achievement:

North Pole: No
Oscar: Yes

[tonyav]

Gawd blimey, and I thought Lammy was bad ( how wrong was I ).

[royfromaus]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1293724/Christophe-Lemaitre-fastest-white-man-history.html

[naomi24]

Time we stopped talking about colour and treated people as people. Prejudice won’t end until we do.

[emmie]

PP Hattie McDaniel got a Best Supporting Oscar for her role as
Mammy in Gone with the Wind. The first African American woman to do so.

[rowanwitch]

I believe one of the reasons is visibility and positive role modelling. The concept of if you can't see it, you won't be it. So if this young woman demonstrates something new, then she may inspire others to believe they can be adventurers. Sidney Poirier wasn't the first black actor but was the first to be box office. He had everything going for him, looks, a great speaking voice and he could actually act. He in his turn led the way til we now have discussions for example about there one day being a black James Bond and where we accept many roles can be played equally well by anyone regardless of ethnicity. Could a black man play Jack Reacher if the physical type was right, definitely and far more convincingly than Teeny tiny Cruise.