How to Avoid Profiling Anyone/Anything

a 2^nd post for Wednesday.

You take a big  risk if you are asked what someone looked like and you actually go ahead and describe them.

It is best to save yourself the  trouble and use a very generic description.
It can be simple.
If it is a human just call it an entity.   This is all the description you need to avoid racial profiling .
Is 'human' too specific a term?  It might be. One may risk pointing the finger at an entire class of sentient life form.

Always use the word 'it'. Never he, she etc. as that is too specific and could be construed as sexist. 'It' is  a more generic word and will avoid that problem.

If anyone tries to get you to speak about color of skin, hair, eyes,even clothing, simply say that   they seemed not to be transparent.  But you have to avoid naming any kind of color. Just say  that the person is opaque.
 As far as the  hue, you can never really be sure anyway can you?  Just say that you are not an expert on such things and could never make a decision one way or the other.

Speaking of clothing, you might be labeling someone by describing the style of clothing that they may be wearing. It is far too specific. It may well be best to just say that there was some sort of covering on the entity. Though this may lead to more questions you are unable to answer.

Pareidolia in tree

 And avoid being too certain as well. Always leave options open because you can  never really be sure what you are looking at .
 You might be seeing a pareidolia.
 A pareidolia  is like seeing someone famous in the scorching on a piece of toast.  You think you see one thing when actually you are seeing another.  Also, it might be that you saw a mirage. You just can never be too sure.
You might need glasses and not know it!

So, learn the following standard safe answer to any and all inquiries concerning descriptions:

"It seemed that  I might have seen an opaque living entity having a certain form and substance to it."
This is both accurate and suitable. You remain neutral and yet  somewhat vaguely involved at the same time. It is the best of both worlds.

It may well be that this could and should be applied to nature as well. We live in a time when the rights of animals and nature are fast approaching those of human beings and there is no place for species profiling or even tree profiling among civilized people.



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