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I'm lacking some serious context of the American way of life, but why would that be racist?

This is from five days ago, but imma reply anyway.  Race is a very sensitive subject here.  People of all races go out of their way not to have conversations about race.  The question, "Are you [race]?" is perceived as racist because it violates this notion of colorblindness we've told ourselves we're supposed to have.  Treat everyone the same regardless of race, don't let race play into this or that decision, blah blah blah.

That's just silly.

EDIT: Have you guys ever seen one of Trevor Noah's shows?

You're absolutely right.

That's just silly.

EDIT: Have you guys ever seen one of Trevor Noah's shows?

how is it silly?  It perpetuates stereotypes

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That's just silly.

EDIT: Have you guys ever seen one of Trevor Noah's shows?

how is it silly?  It perpetuates stereotypes

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4 via Tapatalk

Well...PB kind of put it in a way I don't really approve of, but stereotypes exist, period.

*Every different race has them, even white people
*People of different weight ranges have them (fat people being considered lazy and excessive food eaters, muscular guys seen as dumber than a box of nails, skinny people being considered anorexic and needing to eat more)
*People of different sexual orientations have them.
*People of different religions have them.
*People of different age groups have them.

Hell, even people with different art interests (IE, musicians, graphic artists, writers, actors) have stereotypes about them.

Race has absolutely nothing to do with it.  People will attribute traits to anyone of any type.  Race just happens to have its own set, much like people will stereotype the hell out of someone they see wearing a certain type of clothes.

How is asking a question wrong or perpetuating a stereotype? That's called gaining more information about the person.

And if a lot of Hispanic people happen to be cooks, then thinking a cook you've not met yet might be Hispanic is also a purely statistical way of thinking. The fact that he asked whether your friend was Hispanic showed that he realised he might not be. And that is the opposite of racism.

EDIT: Beyond that, people from different backgrounds and upbringings DO tend to behave differently, speak differently etc. So by asking that question, your father gains a mental image of the person you happen to be talking about, instead of blindly going through with his assumption that your friend might indeed be Hispanic.

Honestly. When I was in Germany, one of the first questions people asked me when I would tell them I come from Africa is: "Why aren't you black?" And this is goddamn GERMANY, the political correctness capital of the world. I merely laughed at their ignorance and informed them that not all people from Africa are black. I was not offended, and I didn't perceive it as being racist either. It was an honest-to-god question borne out of ignorance they couldn't help. They had no ill will toward black people or white people.

Well, like PB said, racial sensitivity is pretty big here.

The US has had a dubious enough history concerning people of other races (Civil war to I believe the 60s with African Americans, World War II with the Japanese, and I wouldn't be surprised if all Asian races were lumped into that one, 9/11 with Asian-Indians (I don't recall the correct term, my apologies) and people lumping all of them as Muslims even though that may not be true, and of course continued illegally immigrating Latin Americans/Mexicans being a continued sore subject for people).

Hell, Trump even made it part of his platform to close our borders so that Muslims couldn't get into the US.

No matter what progress we think we've made on the diversity front, it's still very clearly a large gaping wound.  People are either hyper sensitive to where one can say something innocent and it be taken as a racist remark/behavior, or still hyper anti-diverse (KKK, religious fanatics, etc...)

It's essentially ingrained into our DNA, to where reactions like Gov's with his father's comment are actually perfectly normal.

You seem to forget you're talking to a South African, Pengu. I'd say our problems with racism are perhaps far worse than yours, both throughout history and at the present moment. And yet, not a one of us are THAT touchy. We largely accept and even like our differences.

You seem to forget you're talking to a South African, Pengu. I'd say our problems with racism are perhaps far worse than yours, both throughout history and at the present moment. And yet, not a one of us are THAT touchy. We largely accept and even like our differences.

This is true.  While my history of South Africa is quite a bit rusty, I do recall reading about some of those problems.

But you forget that the US is the Land of the Entitled, where the only person that really matters is yourself. 

People are either hyper sensitive to where one can say something innocent and it be taken as a racist remark/behavior

This part is especially true. Down here in Michigan (and definitely in Detroit) you have to really watch what you say. If it can be construed as racist even if it wasn't, you can get killed for it if you're in a bad enough neighborhood. I didn't talk much in high school, but when I did I had to do so very carefully. Back in 2005 there was an actual race war at my school. Very violent and some people actually tried to kill others. Even though the policies and laws in the US are more diverse it hasn't changed public opinion. There are a lot of people that are oversensitive about race here and people frequently make their own problems about it where there is no problem. It pisses me off but even though many of us lead by example, there isn't much more we can do. I have a feeling it'll still be a long time until race is no longer an issue, if we even manage to stop using our differences as an excuse to be morons.

Well, I mean, it probably doesn't help that there is still so much actual racism in the world. I've seen a police video from America where an elderly black man who uses a golf club as a walking stick gets arrested out of the blue for "brandishing a weapon in public" by a white policewoman. The thing is, I'm not sure whether that woman isn't legitimately that stupid (and would have done the same with a white elderly man), or whether she really is just being a racist pig. Both are unacceptable anyway.

My opinion is that better education should go a long way to solving both problems. And not just an education system where you learn everything like a parrot, but where you actually learn to reason about things. It's an increasingly scarce commodity with the advent of google. People just don't think anymore.

Anyway, now I've drifted off to another topic entirely.

You raise very valid points.

But so long as there are ignorant and arrogant people in the world that either are oblivious to history or suffer traces of the White Supremacist (or another race's equivalent) disease, Racism will always be a problem.

Well, I mean, it probably doesn't help that there is still so much actual racism in the world. I've seen a police video from America where an elderly black man who uses a golf club as a walking stick gets arrested out of the blue for "brandishing a weapon in public" by a white policewoman. The thing is, I'm not sure whether that woman isn't legitimately that stupid (and would have done the same with a white elderly man), or whether she really is just being a racist pig. Both are unacceptable anyway.

The thing is that a lot of racial tension these days, or at least in terms of behaviour towards those of one race or another, are so socially integrated into our brains that one tends to believe that a black man's actions, for example, are worse than a white man's, however inane or innocent. This process is automatic enough so that we fail to realize our subconscious judgement.

We don't actually admit to ourselves that a white man's judgement against a black man is because he is black, but different treatment towards different races happens so quickly that we don't even think about why we treat races differently in the first place, so that we never make the leap in understanding that is necessary to comprehend our mistreatment of the black man: because we learned that the races are different, not through words or teachings, but through actions.

Not many here in the States would admit to being a racist and actually harbouring negative sentiment towards another race, quite the opposite, in fact, but our society still discriminates, despite offering equal rights in theory. In other words, the policewoman did and probably would discriminate against a black man compared to a equivalent white man, but she'd never actually believe in her mind that she did, because she probably genuinely believed that she was in the right, without actually approaching it as racism.

Race relations, then, can only be improved by disintegrating the walls of hypocrisy between what we say we do and what we actually do. Unfortunately, this requires a complete restructuring of our sociology and psychology so we don't "scientifically" cower in fear of a minority or silently judge while outwardly maintaining an accepting/tolerant persona.

That, and we delude ourselves into pseudo-scientific reasons as to why races are inferior, such as crime rates and cultural practices, without actually delving into historical contexts and socioeconomic backgrounds.

But, according to some sources, my perspective is a horrible one from which to be discussing race relations, seeing as how I am "privileged": both white and male. So take my opinions with a grain of salt (which will then proceed to be berated in the opposite direction for being white as well).

Yeah, I am sick to death of being told my perspective is less valid because I am "privileged" (a white male). I didn't come from money. I studied hard and played chess to get myself through school, and got a bursary in a country where, if you have the exact same marks as (or even slightly better than) a black student, you don't get in and the black student does. This has led to a gigantic skills shortage in the country, and our currency just keeps falling while our service delivery just gets worse and worse. How, then, is my opinion less valid than a black student's who achieves exactly as well as I do, and has the exact same opinion? It's racist to claim my opinion should be discarded because I'm white, and anyone who says differently is deluding themselves.

EDIT: This is something Cyril Ramaphosa understands too. Honestly, if he ever became the presidential candidate, I'd support him wholeheartedly. The ANC would be a completely different beast if he took the reins.

Yeah, we're probably going to phase out Affirmative Action in the near future here in the United States... shift to something based on economics instead, probably. 

Personally, I think that, to a large degree, race relations are an easy way to dismiss economic problems as social ones.