When did did this phrase start being used to refer to Latinos, Indians, Arabs, etc? It sounds very dumb and makes the impression that these people don't have wildly different histories and cultures. I can't remember it ever being used informally by people until just recently, like in the early or mid 2000s.
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
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You are completely right that it is a racist term, that disregards the culture and history of the groups within it. I also think there's some truth to what Tzeentch said, albeit in a crass way, that explains somewhat why it seems to be a more recent phenomenon, in that only more recently Latino and Semitic people have entered the understanding of the American public as "the others", when before it more often were Black people in the US (and some other groups)
Brown people is more inclusive than exclusive, and often times the only groups that aren't covered under "brown people" are people of obvious Northern or Eastern European or East Asian heritage. Black people are generally but not always included under "brown people."
The rap group Das Racist made their vague "brown people" status one of their gimmicks, with rap lyric from Himanshu Suri stating "I don't know what these two are, but I'm Punjabi."
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“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
"Brown people" tends to be more accurate than 'Black people." I don't believe I've met someone I would say was closer to black than brown in skin color.
But for some reason it sounds pretty goofy though.
I'm curious...,have you ever referred to someone as being, white? Just because I don't care enough about you to ask what country your great ancestors hailed from doesn't mean that i'm a racist *******. Describing the color of someones skin should usually be interpreted as just that, a desription
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Last edited by jinXed by JaNx on Apr 6th, 2014 at 04:21 PM
Dr Will Hatch wrote on Jan 26th, 2013 09:47 PM:
HI, I saw in the "How powerful would this person be?" thread that you said you write sci-fi stories.
Is there any place I can read them?
...and...
quote:
Dr Will Hatch wrote on Jan 27th, 2013 11:24 AM:
Hey, if I read fanfiction, how bad could your stuff be? wink
I'm always looking for new authors to get into, send the link man. I'll tell you what I think after I'm done.
Dr. Will Hatch, remember these PMs you sent me? You never did what you said you would, even after I sent you a second PM asking what you thought. Even if you hated the story, the proper thing was to follow up on your word.
For shame, sir. For shame.
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I think the problem with blanket terms is that they tend to lead to generalisations. Therefore, I recommend that we just skip them and develop an ethnicity bar code system.
Yeah, you can refer to a white guy as a white guy if you have no frame of reference, but there's more to it than that. An Irish dude and a Greek dude come from vastly different backgrounds, and overall look very different. Likewise, an Arab dude looks very different from and comes from a vastly different culture than a Mexican guy. But both are referred to as "brown people". It's annoying is all.
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Apr 6th, 2014 04:47 AM
