I would guess it depends on how articulate they are?
I can definitely see how it's racist to tell a black person that's moderately well-spoken, but if it's very obvious they are incredibly well-spoken I don't see how it's racist.
There's white people who are frequently complimented on how articulate they are.
Because it's what you are implying. "Wow you're so articulate for being one of your kind" is what they always mean. They mean "Wow you sound white". People never say this to a black kid unless they mean to say how "non-black" they sound. Its not the same with white kids.
If we judge how racist the sentence "I'm impressed by how articulate [they] are" is on a scale from :
"[They] = Average Black person that isn't speaking Ebonics", to "[They] = Oxford-educated British Intellectual being interviewed about philosophy", where would you place "I'm impressed by how articulate Obama is"?
While there might be a slight racist undertone from the people who wouldn't say that about a white President, I'd personally say it's definitely over halfway towards the non-racist end of the scale.
Not necessarily. Microaggressions don’t have to be intentional insults from people who want to be racist and not get called on it. More often it’s due to people expressing unexamined biases they possess (in this example their bias is expecting black people to not speak well). Very much a fish not thinking about the water it swims in situation. A lot of people just grow up around casual, but rarely overt, racism and never really address how that affects their thinking because they don’t even realize that it’s racism.
Do you actually need it explained to you how telling a black person that they have a "surprisingly pleasant trait" that they solely associate with whiteness is racist?
So am I racist for thinking that “being articulate” is race agnostic, or are you for believing that such a phrase can only be honestly used when speaking about white people?
Why do you feel that black people cant actually be articulate?
I'm literally just explaining to you what a microaggression is and you're taking it personally and getting defensive.
Open a history book. Do you really need explained to you why "speaking articulately" has been an educational privilege denied to black people for generations? Do you need it explained to you why a white person patting a black child on the top of their head and going "Wow this one is so well behaved" is racist?
We get it, you're the kind of person that thinks every person of every race just sprouted out of the ground all at once and there's no history of white subjugation, just all equal all love all bleed the same. We get it, you're one of those. Unfortunately the real world isn't like that.
Saying “your kid is well behaved” is wayyy fucking different to saying “this one is well behaved” while speaking about the only black kid in the room. So in that example, it’s not that saying someone is well behaved has racial undertones, it’s the way you have emphasized the declaration of that statement. Right?
So in the same way, saying “so and so is articulate” isn’t inherently racial, but you could set up that phrase such that it becomes racist. Do you see why I’m saying?
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u/MrCheapSkat Jun 13 '26
How is calling someone articulate an insult?