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defrost 3 days ago

At a guess, Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Gambia, etc.

As a function of language (black being an English word) and of fish not calling other fish wet.

Various EU countries are also a possibility, not all countries make such a deal of pigmentation as does the US | UK, etc.

bilbo0s 3 days ago | parent [-]

I'm familiar with all those nations. (In fact the ECOWAS nations are the ones I'm most familiar with.)

Every one of them, I've heard people calling black people "black".

I've also been all over Western Europe, and it's the same story. I've definitely heard the people in Paris, München, wherever call black people "black".

I thought the answer would be someplace I haven't been. Like maybe parts of Asia outside of Japan and China?

Maybe Eastern European nations use a different term?

Or maybe other parts of Africa? (SADC nations maybe?)

But they definitely call black people "black" in the Gambia and Nigeria.

defrost 3 days ago | parent [-]

I've also worked in a good many of the non G20 countries across the planet (geophysical field work) and while, yes, of course skin colour is referred to everywhere it's noticeably less frequent in many countries - I took the stance that the GP was commenting on a relative frequency as compared to (say) the US.

In my experience, which may differ to yours, it was as common in Benin to refer to someone as black as it was in Zurich to call another white.

codeforafrica 3 days ago | parent [-]

Thank you. Suggesting that people never used the the term black would imply that I can overhear every conversation. So obviously I can't rule out that the term is used. I just haven't heard it. or, to be fair, I don't remember having heard it. The fact that English is not the majority language in most places is obviously also a factor. And maybe I just haven't been talking to people enough yet.