I wish, but it went on a tangent about how there could be oxygen in the middle of the desert where there are no bodies of water. Then she got even more perturbed when I said that wind and the fast movement of gas molecules was more than enough to move oxygen into areas and even used her own theory against her when I asked about how many trees are in the middle of the desert.

You laid it out nicely. Well said

yes, well well said. accept my proposal of marriage. also, im looking foran heir to my eastate of 2.6 million dollars.

Those aren't the same thing at all. The "bushman" is the part that makes them the expert, not their race. You actually didn't even denote race in your example. Why exactly couldn't a white person be a "South African bushman"? I think South Africa is like 10% white, so there's no reason they couldn't be.
Similarly, the "city dweller" is the informative part, not the "white". Would a black city dweller fare any better because he was black? See?
So these examples are not analogous to what we were discussing. It is not "merely factual" that one's skin color makes them more knowledgeable about African-American studies.

And there is zero truth to the claim that noticing racism is an indication one is racist. Do you think noticing other things makes you those things too? Does noticing child abuse mean you're an abuser? Does noticing alcoholism mean you're an alcoholic?

@JeffMurray ..... The original post used skin colour as a category, just as "bushman" is a category. I am a third generation Kenyan, pretty savvy in bush living. But my race means I am not as well adapted to it. My black skinned mates laughed about this when I had to blacken my exposed skin when tracking animals with a camera.
I feel the USA has allowed racism to dominate its way of life, instead of accepting the differences.

@Petter You really think modifiable and non-modifiable "categories" are the same thing?
Aside from that, I already admitted there are circumstances where claims of X because of skin color Y could be made specifically to provide a non-racist counter-example. These claims are almost exclusively statements of fact though and are not the types of things that usually come up in conversation. When was the last time you felt the need to mention in conversation that dark-skinned black people are less likely to get sun burned than Irish people?

Also, I have no idea what "allowed racism to dominate" means.

@JeffMurray Just forget it. You are fixated on proving racism in everything. I actually revel in the differences between races, but that is probably because I grew up in multi-racial societies where we joked about it.

@Petter You're displaying ignorance to several important concepts. One that I questioned you about that you didn't respond to above, and now glossing over the distinction between racial differences and racial disparity.

Why can't it be both?

@JeffMurray It doesn't sound like she likes white people very much. What would you call that?

@barjoe Well my position is that anytime X simply because of skin color, it's most likely racist. (I say most likely because you could intentionally finish that sentence in a way that wasn't racist.)

I think I got everything you were saying, the conjunction 'it also may' confused me a bit though.
The restrictions we could place on things could get out of control. You can't be a lactation specialist unless you're a woman... who has had a baby... who nursed?
Astrophysicists aren't experts on space if they're not also astronauts?
Wait, can only hermaphrodites be gender reassignment surgeons? You wouldn't want someone who wasn't an expert performing a major surgery on you, right?

@JeffMurray I meant that they didn't necessarily mean it to BE racist, just you can't be an expert of something if you're not one kinda thing, that you picked up on.

@lerlo That makes it perfectly clear now. Thank you for the reply. And I'd certainly agree it wasn't meant to be racist, but looking at objectively one could see how it was.
When I pointed out how that other comment about black people dancing was racist, that other nurse was shocked. She thought there was no way it could be racist because she thought "it was so complimentary to black people". Just because she didn't know it, and couldn't understand why when it was explained to her, and thus, didn't intend for it to be racist, doesn't mean it wasn't, in fact, a SUPER racist thing to say.

@JeffMurray You didnt mention the black people dancing comment

@lerlo "(e.g. "they're only a good dancer because they're black" - a real statement made by a different coworker)."

@JeffMurray stereotyping is just another form of racism. As we know they're called generalizations for a reason

@lerlo There are other implications as well that highlight how offensive the statement was like the fact that it completely downplays the countless hours these dancers had practiced by claiming most of their talent was innate because of their skin color. It also suggests that if white people had the same base level of skill that black people were born with they would be better dancers than black people. There were others that came to light during the discussion, too, but she couldn't see reason.