Here’s How To Not Sound Like An Ignorant Fool When Asking About Someone’s RaceBy Lilly Workneh Things can get tricky -- and sometimes offensive -- when asking someone: “What are you?” But producers over at The Moral Courage TV, a YouTube channel that shares inspiring and insightful videos, provide a solution that wont leave you sounding insensitive or biased when youBy Lilly Workneh Things can get tricky -- and sometimes offensive -- when asking someone: “What are you?” But producers over at The Moral Courage TV, a YouTube channel that shares inspiring and insightful videos, provide a solution that wont leave you sounding insensitive or biased when you decide to probe into someones personal background. In each episode of Moral Courage, various hosts tackle everyday queries and dilemmas that are published as part of their series: “Just 1 Question.” “[The hosts] ask the tough questions that can lead to moral courage, and the everyday questions that inspire viewers to engage with each other rather than assume,” Adam Grannick, a multimedia producer at Moral Courage, tells HuffPost. In their latest video, host Amani Hayes-Messinger offers alternative ways to asking someone about their ethnic identity rather than bluntly asking: “What are you?” In taking a stab at answering the question herself, Hayes-Messinger says there are many pieces to her identity. She has Black, Russian, German, Ukranian and Polish roots, two moms and shes Jewish -- a mixed bag of backgrounds that some people, at first glance, may not be aware of. “Asking the question ‘What are you? in a black community, assumes that Im too white to be black, or that Im too Jewish to be black, she says. “And in predominantly white Jewish communities, asking the question ‘what are you? assumes Im too black to be Jewish.” While Hayes-Messinger recognizes that it is important to ask these questions, she suggests that they should be done in ways that dont force someone to confine themselves to singular labels. Instead, she encourages people to engage in conversations and move past labels in order to possibly get a deeper definition and, ultimately, understanding of ones ethnic background. “The next time youre thinking about asking someone, ‘what are you?, go deeper and say: ‘I dont want to assume, but Im curious if youd tell me how you racially identify?” she explains. “Asking someone how they identify, instead of what they are, opens up a dialogue that hasnt already forced them into an ‘other. That doesnt assume theyre from somewhere else or are something else. Multiple identities is an identity.” Grannick said the projects goals were to help people move beyond the temptation to make assumptions about how people identify or how they think -- instead, he hints to the deeper lesson embedded in the video. “I hope that viewers will come away with a new way to engage with people, rather than be tempted to censor themselves out of fear of offending.” ift.tt/1gB4pon
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 19:24:34 +0000
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