'Skin colour' paint reported as racist

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shuri

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http://www.thelocal.se/20131110/skin-colour-paint-reported-as-racist

A Swedish teenager has reported a paint manufacturer to the Equality Ombudsman accusing them of racism after labelling the beige paint as "skin colour."

The 14-year old discovered the paint sold by Universal Color and Chemicals at school. She said that it was "sick" that the term 'skin-colour' was used to describe beige.

She has taken her complaint to the Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen) arguing that the term 'skin colour' is racist and has the backing of her family as well as her school.

"By renaming beige to skin colour they show that there is a whiteness norm in society," Thyra,14, told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

[...]

Her father said his daughter was motivated, in part, to take the motion to the Equality Ombudsman by her sister but added that he didn't think the company had named the paints in a deliberately racist way.

"Her little sister has brown skin but according to the paint manufacturer she has no skin colour...I think (the company) just looked at themselves and imagined that's what skin was," he told the newspaper.
 
This happened with Crayola crayons in the 60s and they renamed the colour "Flesh" to "Peach." I don't know if I'd call it racist, but it's definitely not very accepting, and the change is an easy one.
 
"By renaming beige to skin colour they show that there is a whiteness norm in society," Thyra,14, told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Isnt america about 80% white? Wouldn't that kinda make whiteness normal or at least default colour?
 
"By renaming beige to skin colour they show that there is a whiteness norm in society," Thyra,14, told the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Isnt america about 80% white? Wouldn't that kinda make whiteness normal or at least default colour?

Swedes will be quite unhappy to hear they're American now.
 
I am outraged!

Anyway, she is right.
"Skin colour" is just beige, as skin colour is a continuum of colours ranging from pale-white to ebony-black.
 
You know what? The English language needs some new words to differentiate between varying degrees of racial insensitivity. Right now we have just one word to describe things done out of ignorance and things done out of malice. The one word isn't helping things imo.
 
My bad, whats the percentage in Sweden?

Probably higher than that, but the point is that we shouldn't be reinforcing the idea that certain arbitrary and immutable characteristics (i.e. pale skin) are either "normal" or "abnormal." To do so just marginalizes those in the minority, even when not done out of malice.

For another example, the crayola crayon color now labeled as "peach" was called "flesh" until the 60's.
 
Saying skin color is pretty common in many parts of the world; in South Asia they say it, and they aren't even normally white there.

Although yeah, beige is the better word to use by far.
 
So equally if they had a paint that was dark green and called it leaf colour, people should be outraged because of the scientific inaccuracy.
Fucking retarded child.
 
Label it "skin color of the people who fucking conquered the world during the 19 and 20th centuries and so they feel like the world still belong to them"

Ok?

That said, "flesh color" is a term here (italy), and usually refer to slightly brownish pink. It's not called "skin".

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That's also actually more correct since flesh under the skin is the same color for everyone.
 
I don't think she was over reacting.

Having beige labelled as skin colour obvious alienates anyone with a darker shade of skin, as it implies that beige (aka white) is the only colour of skin.

The paint company can easily rectify this by naming the paint to 'Normal skin colour'.
 
Political correctness scares me unlike anything else.

Yup. I'd much rather have ball cancer than have a friend or colleague say that something I said was inappropriate. Chemotherapy and possible death is nothing compared to that moment of awkwardness.
 
That is racist, regardless of whether or not the article is a parody. I'm surprised that companies still call light pink "skin color". Crayola changed their crayons to "peach" decades ago.

Seeing as 90% of the world does not have a skin tone like that, calling peach "skin color" is inherently exclusive, and says that people who aren't light skinned are not normal.
 
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