• QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I suspect it’s a joke based on The Office. Oe of the main characters is a Triscuit-American called Jim. There is a different character called Asian Jim. Caucasian James = white Jim.

    • planish@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      But “Caucasian” is now recognized as a racist term (in that using it produces racism), kind of because it’s a science-y word for “white”, an unscientific concept.

      • QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Who recognizes “Caucasian” as a racist term? I’m asking this in all seriousness as I have never heard this before

        Caucasian should mean “from the Caucus mountain region”

        • Instigate@aussie.zone
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          2 months ago

          Which leads in perfectly to another joke from the US version of The Office where Dwight claims that Kelly, of Indian heritage, doesn’t qualify for their parent company Sabre’s “Print in All Colours” initiative because Indian people are technically Caucasian

          • PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space
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            2 months ago

            Reminds me of that old chestnut of the white guy from South Africa who, after emigrating to the US, got into trouble for stating he was “African-American.”

            • QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              I had a friend who moved to the US from South Africa as a kid. When “African-American” started being used she was very confused. She would ask “How is X ‘African’ when he was born in New Jersey and only speaks English while I was born in South Africa and speak Swahili and Xhosa is not African just because Im white?” It was then I started realizing how racist some of the attempts to counter racism ended up being.

        • planish@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Yes?

          I suppose this doesn’t exactly suggest it’s deprecated in Twitter handles. But if the scientists have given up on it, why should normal people keep it?

          • NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            No.

            A couple researchers suggesting a literary review of the specific usage of a word and how it is used in specific contexts within scientific literature is a far cry from the idea that scientists in general are claiming that the word caucasian is a generally racist word.

            • planish@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              I don’t know that scientists in general (from chemists to seismologists) know it, but the people who study what scientists ought to call groups of people seem to have reached consensus.