We Are All People of Color. Part I
       Today I read an article from the Associated Press, published in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, headlined "State's Latinos outnumber whites" and based on "U.S. Census Bureau figures released in late June." The second paragraph then mentioned "Hispanic Californians" as outnumbering "white Californians." My first reactions were "so what?" and "who cares?" My second set of ruminations concerned the continuing normalization of racism by the powers that be. Racism is insidiously normalized by the acceptance of the public of racists terminology without the critical thinking that should be questioning the meaning of this terminology.
       Point 1. "White" is a racial term. What does it really mean? Who is "white" and by what criteria are they thus determined?
       Point 2. "Latino" and "Hispanic" are cultural terms, not racial identities, and point 2.2, why are they used interchangeably? "Hispanic" is a quasi-cultural, language-based category, but those who speak Spanish come from a wide variety of cultures and sub-cultures. Why are they being lumped together and why are they being contrasted with "whites?" As for the term "Latino," why is it used interchangeably with "Hispanic?" Latinos could also speak Italian, Portuguese, or French and, again, they too come from a wide variety of cultures and sub-cultures. So the terms "Latino" and "Hispanic" are questionable even as cultural categories, but the real evil is that they are used as racial categories, especially since so many Spanish-speaking people are also "white." But why do we accept these arbitrary racial divisions in the first place?
       Going back to point 1, why is there even a racial category of "white?" Answer: because the white racists and supremists who identify as "white" have planted that meme in our culture. Even those who are victimized by it still accept it. Racial identity, by anyone of any color, is racism.
       In the first place, scientifically, there is no such thing as "race". I have already belabored that point on my website (www.peacemoon.org ) but the point is that the concept of "race" is both a personal construct and a social construct. These psychological constructs have made those who accept them believe that the color of a person's skin (or hair texture, or nose size, or eye shape, etc.) can somehow tell you something important about a person or group of people. I believe that pretty much defines racism The above mentioned superficial physical descriptive characteristics are only just that: superficial physical descriptions. Also, they are not digital like a box of crayons, they are more analog like the visual band of the electromagnet spectrum. There is an extremely wide range of these physical characteristics, but they are all determined by heredity (nature), not environment (nurture) which includes politics, economic class, religion, education, etc. etc.
More about this tomorrow My website