We Are All People of Color Part II
       Yesterday I said that the varieties of human skin color, nose size, eye shape, and hair texture; superficial genetic descriptions; are not digital like a box of crayons, but more analog like the visual band of the electromagnetic spectrum. And as superficial genetic descriptions they cannot tell us anything about what kind of a person we are describing. Fact: you cannot inherit culture through your genes. Culture is learned behavior, and anything that can be learned can be unlearned.
       Even when two individuals have exactly the same heredetary characteristics, even if they are siblings, you cannot assume that they have the same politics, religion, economic class, education, etc., To determine these specific cultural differences you have to see how they behave, talk to them, know them as individuals, not as part of a group. They may fall into a general group after you have done that, but you cannot assume anything before you have met them personally. The word "prejudice" means "a pre-judgement," judging without learning the specific facts of a case.
       My problem with some people who call themselves "Progressives" is that they think it is okay to encourage people's racial identities. We are not yet living in a truly post-racial society, but many "liberals" who decry that situation are also contributing to the permanence of racism. Why is it okay for some people to be racists but not others? Why are melanin challenged racists considered evil, but their darker brothers and sisters get a free pass? How does that help us move on to a post-racial society?
       We are all people of (some) color. Only albinos are "white," The rest of us come in an analog spectrum of shades of skin color that defies digital racial categories. How many "races" are there? Even the racists, depending on who you ask, cannot agree on how many "races" there are and/or what physical descriptions (skin color, eye shape, nose size, hair texture) count as identifiers of race. Since it was racists who invented racial identity in the first place, why is it okay for people who do not want to be thought of as racists to accept it? "Hispanic" is a language-based cultural category, not a racial category, so why are some of them claiming to not be white? And since the racist slave-owners and segregationists invented the idea that being 1/4 black made you all black, but being 3/4 white does not make you white, why do some of those who have been victims of racism continue to believe it? Why do those many individuals (and they are now growing in number), who come from so-called "bi-racial" families be forced to choose one racial identiy over another?
      
       Why does anyone need "race" as a personal identity anyway? What kind of person thinks that the color of their skin is more important than what they are accomplishing (if anything) towards ending racism and working towards world peace?
       More about that on Monday. Happy weekend, drive safely.
       My website