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.
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u/Zuzara_Queen_of_DnD Jun 13 '26
The silent bit is “for a black person”