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Lucern · 12-13-2006, 03:58 AM

I see some racism here and a lot of common misconceptions about race. Please hear me out.

It is racist:

1) To believe that you can base race on biology (hair, skin, etc). Racial typologies have all easily failed the tests of scientific validity.

2) To assign culture to biological elements like skin color (which is pretty incoherent if you think about it - whatever we may think about culture, your upbringing determines your identity, nor your birth, though resistance to the claims of identity made by others is interesting ((or not made...maybe it's just hair [img]smile.gif[/img] )))

Popular media is pretty ignorant about this: either taking the naive approach that they don't 'see' race (yeah, they do - if they were more mature about it they'd be able to deal with it), or that races exist but do not affect anything. Well, yeah they do. There's a little thing called society wherein races do matter to varying degrees. Failing to acknowledge this and take it seriously is pretty unfair to people living with its negative effects.

You may be thinking "But we can see all see race." Yeah, that's the point. See Ann Stoler's Race and the Education of Desire, for an account of historical shifts as they relate to race, or The Emperor's New Clothes by Joseph Graves for an account of attempts to use biology to prove that races exist from the benign but misguided to eugenics. Also, since Larry mentioned Cherokee identity, Circe Sturm's work on race and tribal identity among the Cherokee, "Blood Politics" does a good job with it.

Before I started down the road to being an anthropologist and started reading about race, I took a perspective that 'yeah, I guess there are races, but of course we're all born equal'. That's pretty common, and not all racisms are equal. At least my racism was ignorant but mostly benign. Of course, when we hear 'racist' we think of its worst embodiment, and we all know what that looks like - to be accused of it naturally offends us. That really doesn't sound like anyone here, particularly in that this thread started with an effort to learn more.

Ultimately, I think that the most ethical thing to do is to accept that we're all racist to a degree - in that we see race at the least. The key is to be aware of it, to limit its power over our thinking, and to dissuade others from the idea that race is a salient biological concept. It's social, it's pernicious, and it has real impacts on all of us. In the spirit of dissuading others, I'm happy to monitor this thread and debate the point until our eyes bleed

After all, it's either this or I have to seriously work on my papers.

12-13-2006, 03:58 AM	#32
Lucern Quintesson Join Date: August 28, 2004 Location: the middle of Michigan Age: 43 Posts: 1,011	I see some racism here and a lot of common misconceptions about race. Please hear me out. It is racist: 1) To believe that you can base race on biology (hair, skin, etc). Racial typologies have all easily failed the tests of scientific validity. 2) To assign culture to biological elements like skin color (which is pretty incoherent if you think about it - whatever we may think about culture, your upbringing determines your identity, nor your birth, though resistance to the claims of identity made by others is interesting ((or not made...maybe it's just hair [img]smile.gif[/img] ))) Popular media is pretty ignorant about this: either taking the naive approach that they don't 'see' race (yeah, they do - if they were more mature about it they'd be able to deal with it), or that races exist but do not affect anything. Well, yeah they do. There's a little thing called society wherein races do matter to varying degrees. Failing to acknowledge this and take it seriously is pretty unfair to people living with its negative effects. You may be thinking "But we can see all see race." Yeah, that's the point. See Ann Stoler's Race and the Education of Desire, for an account of historical shifts as they relate to race, or The Emperor's New Clothes by Joseph Graves for an account of attempts to use biology to prove that races exist from the benign but misguided to eugenics. Also, since Larry mentioned Cherokee identity, Circe Sturm's work on race and tribal identity among the Cherokee, "Blood Politics" does a good job with it. Before I started down the road to being an anthropologist and started reading about race, I took a perspective that 'yeah, I guess there are races, but of course we're all born equal'. That's pretty common, and not all racisms are equal. At least my racism was ignorant but mostly benign. Of course, when we hear 'racist' we think of its worst embodiment, and we all know what that looks like - to be accused of it naturally offends us. That really doesn't sound like anyone here, particularly in that this thread started with an effort to learn more. Ultimately, I think that the most ethical thing to do is to accept that we're all racist to a degree - in that we see race at the least. The key is to be aware of it, to limit its power over our thinking, and to dissuade others from the idea that race is a salient biological concept. It's social, it's pernicious, and it has real impacts on all of us. In the spirit of dissuading others, I'm happy to monitor this thread and debate the point until our eyes bleed After all, it's either this or I have to seriously work on my papers.