From: "Mark" 

No offence taken, my underlying point was that it's just not important to
me, not that I pretend not to notice -- but on further thought, in the
instance of witnessing a crime I'd probably say a 6'x" black guy too.

"Tony Williams"  wrote in message
news:431c8a03$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> Mark wrote:
>
>> If I were a witness to a crime I'd be far more likely to describe the
>> alleged perpetrator as 6'x" tall as my first impression than
"he was
>> black" as I genuinely have trouble making that distinction as conscious
>> thought.
>
> I'd be much more likely to say "he was a tall black guy" or
"he was a
> short white guy". I hate those conversations where someone's trying to
> describe a person and is afraid to use skin colour as a distinguishing
> feature. It's one of the single most noticeable visual cues, but people
> will use height, clothes, hairstyle, anything but the colour of their skin
> (or, increasingly, their girth) to describe someone's appearance.
>
> Often as not, I end up asking for confirmation by saying something like,
> "Oh, do you mean the asian lady?".
>
> Pretending not to see the colour of someone's skin isn't PC, it's dumb; a
> genuine inability to notice sounds like brainwashing. No offence intended,
> Mark, I've noticed this in a lot of people. Mostly white, now I come to
> think of it.
>
> --
> Tony
>

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