Accidental Racism

Sometimes an innocent word in one language can be very offensive and carry an entirely different message in another language. One Waffles and Pancakes comic is just about that. A boy gets an aquarium, and names his fish Negro. Soon everything escalates quickly to accidental racism.

D.T. Saranya says that the story is inspired by her fish whose name was “Negrillo”. “Negro” means “black” in Spanish and Portuguese, and derived from the Latin word “niger”, meaning “black”. In the U.S. “Negro” was accepted as normal until after the later African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, some black American leaders, notably Malcolm X, objected to the word “Negro” because they associated it with the long history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination that treated African-Americans as second class citizens, or worse.

Have you ever encountered accidental racism? Share your stories in the comment section.

More info: wandpcomic.com | Facebook

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Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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What do you think ?

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Lane Sizo 8 years ago

I'm negro. Someone else can also call me negro. At the end of the day, the word itself holds no meaning than the literal. It's how you say it that counts. I live in Asia, most people call me black, I take no offense. Matter of fact, I'd rather they called me black instead of African, because 90% of the time someone here addresses me as an "African", it is in an unpleasant form. Like, "You're African?". How do you reply to that? I'm African? No, I'm not African, that's just the continent I'm from, I'm Swazi, that's my nationality. Black, that's my race. African? What does that mean? Are you asking about my culture? No, my culture is not African, it is one that is from Africa, yes. African... it's not racist, it's an ethnic identity. Which in a normal conservation, holds no meaning, unless you intend to discriminate.

74points

Shara Guinesso 8 years ago

its awesome that you put it that way Lane, i have honestly always wondered what the best way to describe someone of "black" skin without insulting them or others who might hear me. And to be honest with where i am from we have so many different "skin colors" that i feel that when we generalize people such as "oh that person is an african american" i sometimes wonder if that is insulting, like what if they are only here visiting say by visa or for school or what have you and they have no intention of being a citizen. does calling them an african american insult them? i mean i never want to insult anyone of any skin tone.

10points

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Benski Trenkins 8 years ago

Well said. I won't call you black, or negro, or african... To me you're Lane.

3points

Juan Alcorta 8 years ago

Such an excellent reply!

3points

ozzy ceth 8 years ago

i really do not understand why people need to seperate people depending their nationality , skin color or sth else. we are all human. we do not choose to born and we die even we dont want to. it is not important who you are or where you from but what you do for humanity. thats the real thing for me.

2points

Hans 8 years ago

This is a funny story, and I guess things like this quite often happen, to the embarrassment of parents. However, it is not "accidentsl racism", for it does not depict a racist idea. This terminology proposal is clumsy, but you strictly would need to call it "accidentially seeming to be racist" to be precise...

13points