Describing people as “black” and “white” is racist and we need to overhaul the system, a Tooting GP has argued.
Dr Allswell Eno, 49, said we should describe people by their heritage using terms such as European, Asian, Polynesian, Arab and Afroic [a person of African origin].
The dad-of-four said: “We must move away from colour. It is debasing to humans. The word ‘black’ was invented to mean something negative. We need language that’s not going to cause offence to anybody.
“When they were bringing people on the slave ships they talked about ‘blacks’ - the term was pejorative.
“People say to me they quite understand and they agree. It is time to move away from these archaic, frankly racist, terms.”
But what about black power? The movement, grown out of the civil rights campaign of the 1960s, can be credited with changing the lives of generations of people through politics, the arts, education and culture.
Dr Eno, a GP at the Trinity Medical Centre in Balham High Road, said: “We had that, but that’s 1964. It had a perfect context in the mid-60s – it was done for a very good reason at the time. It served its purpose well.”
Time to change? Dr Eno next to a campaign poster in his surgery
Dr Eno has launched the bLack of Respect campaign and has already persuaded an NHS drug regulator to change its categorisation of people after they recommended a medicine be prescribed to “black people”.
He is now targeting the Office of National Statistics, who compile the national census, as well as schools, universities, police and the media.
Dr Eno said already the likes of Hugh Grant have signed his petition.
For more information and to sign the petition visit blackofrespect.co.uk.
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