'Blacks' and white people...

 I was walking on the Ohlone trail when I caught up with two white womyn who had been walking in front of me but stopped for a water break.

I overheard one of the white womyn saying "the Blacks were over there, but white people stood..."

I immediately went into anti-racism mode. I excused myself and asked the womon if she really said what I overheard, calling one group of people "the Blacks" and another group of people "white people"?

"Oh," she exclaimed, "I didn't mean anything by it."

I told her my racism antenna shot up overhearing that. It's dehumanizing to leave the "people" off when talking about people of color; and then to add the 'people' to whites is (un)consciously humanizing. It reveals racism in that white people automatically think of ourselves as people, but think of Black people as "Blacks".

"What if I would have said 'Blacks' and 'whites'"? she queried, nodding slowly.

"That would seem to be more equivalent but do you think both words carry the same weight, let alone have the same historical usage in our country?"

She said she understood, that she would think about it. I thanked her and asked her to try her best to refer to Black people as people from now on.