[ACC25062]

What about when Richard Pryor got accused of being racist for saying ‘white folks’ and ‘blacks folks’ all the time in his act? Sounds to me like this officer was using the word the same way Ross Perot used ‘you people’ to refer to blacks. There was an explicit distinction and dividing into ‘us and them’ with what he said. I’ve also heard ‘folks’ used by Southern whites to mean either ‘us folks’ (meaning other Southern whites) or ‘them folks’ or ‘those folks’ (meaning either blacks or white outsiders, i.e. Yankees). A lot of times comments have to be judged in their context, the tone of voice or gestures used with the words and so on. I don’t think anyone ‘assumed’ racism. It’s just that we are faced with it so often, that we recognize it immediately, while many whites scratch their heads and have to wonder.

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Name : ACC25062, Gender : M, Race : Mexican and American Indian, City : Phoenix, State : AZ, Country : United States, 

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