# Your offensive questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 2, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-offensive-questions/659908 "2013-06-02T00:26:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-offensive-questions/659908/1 "2013-06-02T00:26:24Z")
Ok, this is the thread for ignorant, naive, or downright offensive questions you would nonetheless like the answer to, but would never dare ask in real life. I’ll go first: can you see blood vessels through black skin? I live in the whitest place on earth, and have never seen a black persons wrists up close, so… ---
**Author:** ![Rowanchilde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@Rowanchilde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rowanchilde)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-offensive-questions/659908/2 "2013-06-02T00:30:48Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > Ok, this is the thread for ignorant, naive, or downright offensive questions you would nonetheless like the answer to, but would never dare ask in real life. > > I’ll go first: can you see blood vessels through black skin? I live in the whitest place on earth, and have never seen a black persons wrists up close, so… Speaking of ignorant and naive; how does it feel to live in the whitest place on earth? ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-offensive-questions/659908/3 "2013-06-02T00:32:13Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > Ok, this is the thread for ignorant, naive, or downright offensive questions you would nonetheless like the answer to, but would never dare ask in real life. > > I’ll go first: can you see blood vessels through black skin? I live in the whitest place on earth, and have never seen a black persons wrists up close, so… See [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=691899). ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-offensive-questions/659908/4 "2013-06-02T00:41:08Z")
Yes, no, sometimes, not well… it really depends. Black people come in all shades, and yes, it’s generally more difficult to see blood vessels underneath darker skin. Same for early pressure ulcers (“bed sores”) and many rashes. What may be a vivid red rash on pale skin may look more like dark dark brown or black speckles on dark skin. Skin assessment on dark skin takes a lot of practice and experience. Something I always find kind of neat: black people’s palms and soles are usually about the same color as mine. That is, they tend not to have any more melanin there than white people (although some have darker creases). A sweet old (black) lady once pointed this out to me when I was a brand new nurse. It was evidence, she said, that God wanted us to help each other. She picked up my hand and held it palm up next to her own. “You hold out a hand to help, and we all look the same. You clench a fist, and that’s when we look different.” _sniff_ She was so awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-offensive-questions/659908/5 "2013-06-02T01:21:03Z")
Until I was nineteen I would have wondered the same thing as the OP. Until then I’d rarely even spoken to a black person. For example, in my elementary school there was one black person, a fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Counts. My church congregation had no blacks, my Girl Scout troop didn’t either. My high school was on the [del]white[/del] west side of town, and of eighteen hundred students, about a dozen were black. Then I joined the Army. Talk about a crash course in human relations!😃 I learned things I’d never even had questions about! As in, yes, black people’s skin darkens with prolonged exposure to sun, just like mine did. It wasn’t just race either. The myriad ways in which people relate to each other, the way they talk, eat, smell. "What do you _ **do** _ on Sunday morning, if you don’t go to church?😛 Questions are never stupid. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-offensive-questions/659908/6 "2013-06-02T01:33:30Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > A sweet old (black) lady once pointed this out to me when I was a brand new nurse. It was evidence, she said, that God wanted us to help each other. She picked up my hand and held it palm up next to her own. “You hold out a hand to help, and we all look the same. You clench a fist, and that’s when we look different.” _sniff_ She was so awesome. Thank you for sharing this, WhyNot. It’s beautiful. You made me smile today.