A. As soon as he leaves the room.

I heard this joke today and rather than offending me it got me to thinking. In essence by the sheer etymology of words it is a truism which is only a matter of taste, diplomacy and political correctness.

The word ‘nigger’ is a derivative of the Spanish word ‘negro’ which means black. So in essence to be called black is the same as being called nigger. Either way the colour of your skin rather than the measure of your character is what is being used as a point of reference.

By my reckoning to be called either is as offensive as the other. All because the term black has been popularised over a long period of time does not make it right. The term ‘nigga’ as used in the rap and hip-hop communities is seen pejoratively by many but considering it is only used between ‘niggas’ and not attached to ‘black’ people when they leave rooms is it not the lesser of the three evils?

I thought further about the meaning of our grand narrative and the connotations that it has for our future as evolving human beings. To recognise and annotate somebody based on skin colour rather than culture or ethnicity is particularly ignorant and closed minded.

Let’s look at it another way. If, say, I bought a new Mercedes-Benz and drove it to a party and then when asked by another of the guests “What car do you drive?” I retorted, “Oh, a black one”, they would look at me blankly because the colour of my car is the least of its attributes and has no bearing on its performance. What about the engine, the fuel consumption, the aesthetics, the make etc?

I then thought further that of all the people in the world we are the sole group known by colour only. We would never call a Chinese person a yellow person in polite conversation nor would we call an Indian man a brown person. Ethnicity over colour.

I am fully aware that what would invariably be mentioned by a sceptic at this juncture would be “What about white people? White people are known by colour too”.

To this I would retort that the only reason why white people are called white people relates back to the opening gambit of this piece. When in the company of ‘blacks’ they become ‘white’ to be a complimentary polar opposite. Similar to good and bad or right and wrong. When no black people are present do white people refer to each other as white? In fact, before the times when the mass population of Europe knew of people outside of their villages, did the whole global discourse of colour, and so race, even exist?

History teaches us many lessons as the world continuously evolves. Women were once thought to be witches, left handed people to be sinister (a term still used today) and ‘black’ people to be a different species. If the advancement of science has taught us anything it should teach us all to grow up and snap out of our prejudices based on fear.

The novelty of appearance should have worn off centuries ago, but there are those who benefit from the social construct of race and the infrastructure of the world’s problems today are based within this construct.

So when I hear people mention me in reference to colour, as much as it saddens me, it makes me smile. The colour of my car has no bearing on the fact that I am the fastest thing on the road.

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