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RE: Why Race Really Truly Isn't an Actual Thing
You've prompted me to look up the definition of race. 'Ethnic groups' seems to be the definition for the dictionary and 'sub species' with regards to animals. It's another reminder as to why labels are often not much use other than to develop pre-conceptions.
I'm a pasty redhead, so what dark skin tells me is that you are less likely to get sunburnt than me! Lol!
I can tell that you get it. So, I don't mean for this post to be a refutation of what you've said.
I just want to point out, for those playing at home, that one (race) is biological and the other (ethnic groups) is more cultural or social.
So, for example, in today's vernacular, the vast majority of people who are Jewish, Irish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Austrian, Belgian, Scottish, Welsh, Russian, Ukranian, Swiss, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Slovakian, Bosnian, Latvian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Cypriate, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Montenegran and Albanian, could all come to the United States, and, if asked to specify their race, could get away with simply saying .......
....."white."
Yet, they are not one collective 'ethnic group.'
So, I understand how dictionaries can sometimes be linguistic sculptors, shaving the barbarous edges off of offensive concepts to make them digestible in an academic environment.
Still, some words lose something in translation to how they are meant and used in every day life.
Kind of makes one have to consider re-thinking the whole Rachael Dolezal thing. Doesn't it?
Okay, so what you're saying is that the word 'race' has come to mean black or white? If so, then like many things these days it forces us to one extreme side or the other, when there is a huge range in between. I often wonder how you can define who is black or white when we have such a range of skin, hair and eye colours. It could be subjective. Put someone who is white next to a very pale blonde and they might get called black at the other end put someone with brown skin next to someone with almost black skin, then maybe you could them white now...
To be honest though, there's probably no point in arguing the point with someone who has already decided what colour you are. Personally I love that the western would is such a wonderful mixture. I suppose the environment I grew up in meant that I was a bit naive to all this sort of thing. I didn't even know that some people considered being a redhead a problem! Lol! I might delve more into my school life and write a post on it. I remember our teacher reading a story, from the '60s I think, on racism and I thought it was a wonderful thing that it no longer existed! 😂
I guess the Rachael Dolezal thing shows that were seem to have an urge to identify as something; to label ourselves somehow as what we want to be.