• LouNeko@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    The things I’ve heard as a pale person even in a professional environment, where if you would simply swap “white” to “black”, “pale” to “dark” would get you fired on the spot. But for some reason, commenting on someone’s skin color if they’re pale is perfectly socially acceptable, encouraged even since it often gets a laugh from others.

    • qqq@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      As a very pale person who was bullied a lot for it and probably has lasting personal doubt from that bullying, I think there is just a fundamental difference (in the US). One is “just” mean and bullying, but there is no horrific dehumanizing history behind it. Both are bad, but I don’t think they’re directly substitutable in the way you describe, as I think it cheapens the history of slavery and racism

    • JayDee@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Probably because the entire western world didn’t systematically buy and enslave kidnapped pale people, treat them as subhuman and breed them like livestock - so it’s not as touchy a subject.

      Edit: Guess that’s still a touchy subject. You wanted an answer for why it’s still socially acceptable to joke about pale skin but not dark skin, and that’s pretty obviously the answer why it’s not the same thing.

      Or maybe the downvotes are because the breeding only happened in the Southern US and French, German, British, Australian, and Belgian lemmies don’t wanna get roped in on that specific colonial history.

      • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Not even that, colorism is prevalent globally–whiter skin privilege exists pretty much around the world. Look at mass media from Mexico and India and you’ll see a bunch of people who are several shades lighter than the majority.

    • helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz
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      3 days ago

      Yes! Most “white” people are in fact light brown. They cannot stand being around anybody different.

      I’m mostly pink with some blue, and I heard all about it in high school. Later, in college (uni) I got over it because my punk, goth, and Black friends didn’t care. But man those “white” girls in high school were rotten.

    • A7thStone@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      And once again redditors lemmings learn that using different words changes the meaning of statements.

    • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      The uncorfortableness around the skin color of “colored” people has to do with their oppression at the hands of white people. It not about their skin color more about their oppression

      • LouNeko@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        For me, there are so many things that a person could do to make me uncomfortable with them, their skin being a different tone of beige than mine isn’t one of them.

    • rnercle@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      talking about skin color is not a problem. But the way you quickly put “white-black” there makes me think that, yes, indeed it’s better for you if you keep your mouth shut at work