Race is the craziest thing in America

[heavily weighted]

Race is a social construction and a biological myth.

I think some of you might be getting ethnicity mixed up with race.   

 

[jordanhead718212]

Originally Posted by JordanHead718212

Do you really dislike being called African-American because you don't "identify" with Africans, or do you just look down on us?

 

[samduh562]

@ this thread dudes not proud of being called their own nationality where they do that at?
proud asian american right here

 

[antonlavey]

Originally Posted by Heavily Weighted

Race is a social construction and a biological myth.

I think some of you might be getting ethnicity mixed up with race.   

Race doesn't exist-if it were an actual biologically/genetically determined category there would be thousands and possibly millions of races depending on how genetic relatedness is measured and what genetic markers are used

Ethnicity and culture on the other hand is often self determined-There are many cultures and subcultures on this planet that I choose to place myself in

 

[|A-Man|]

It's not just America.

 

[limonyfresh]

America refers to a nation of many nationalities, so inherently you aren't really in unity from the get go.

 

[heavily weighted]

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Originally Posted by Heavily Weighted

Race is a social construction and a biological myth.

I think some of you might be getting ethnicity mixed up with race.   

Race doesn't exist-if it were an actual biologically/genetically determined category there would be thousands and possibly millions of races depending on how genetic relatedness is measured and what genetic markers are used

Ethnicity and culture on the other hand is often self determined-There are many cultures and subcultures on this planet that I choose to place myself in

I don't agree that ethnicity and culture are self determined. If you share a tradition, heritage, language, common ancestry, etc with someone, then you two have the same ethnicity.

Sure, you can choose to place yourself in a certain ethnicity. You could choose to be a Martian and tell people you're from Mars but that does not mean you're from Mars.

 

[beh235]

Originally Posted by ThunderChunk69

Originally Posted by beh235

society is built on division, though.

I was referring specifically to America. Yes, society is built on division, racism is more specific my man.

 

[antonlavey]

Originally Posted by Heavily Weighted

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Originally Posted by Heavily Weighted

Race is a social construction and a biological myth.

I think some of you might be getting ethnicity mixed up with race.   

Race doesn't exist-if it were an actual biologically/genetically determined category there would be thousands and possibly millions of races depending on how genetic relatedness is measured and what genetic markers are used

Ethnicity and culture on the other hand is often self determined-There are many cultures and subcultures on this planet that I choose to place myself in

I don't agree that ethnicity and culture are self determined. If you share a tradition, heritage, language, common ancestry, etc with someone, then you two have the same ethnicity.

Sure, you can choose to place yourself in a certain ethnicity. You could choose to be a Martian and tell people you're from Mars but that does not mean you're from Mars.

I said is "often"-

Obviously, people are born into a certain culture etc but you can also adopt a culture by interacting with people from a certain culture for so long

Lemme give an example, a black man in America who likes stereotypically "white" things eg music, women, food

-His identification with white culture is self determined to an extent

If I'm human and I've lived in mars for a bit, I may choose to identify with my martian culture more than my earthling culture


I shouldn't have said ethnicity-Your parents determine ur ethnicity

 

[heavily weighted]

^^ Yeah earlier I thought you looked at culture and ethnicity as the same thing. I agree, culture can be adopted. 

 

[antonlavey]

Originally Posted by Heavily Weighted

^^ Yeah earlier I thought you looked at culture and ethnicity as the same thing. I agree, culture can be adopted. 

Ethnicity is the most specific subdivision of a person's identity imo-These arguments always remind me of animal taxonomy

This same system can be applied to human categorization and ofcourse it's mostly arbitrary-

Earthling
Human
African
Nigerian
Ibo
(Whatever specific village I'm from)

It's our nature to create divide and categorize


Taxonomy was also my inspiration for the pigeonhood aka ninjahood joke-is he black or is he Dominican or is he Hispanic? Why not all of the above?

This is why I don't reject most labels for people of the African Diaspora-I'm as African American as most African Americans since most were brought here from West African albeit generations removed

 

[dipsetgeneral]

 

[thorrocksjs]

Race in America will have to be confronted eventually on a grand scale .To this day we have folks completely oblivious or willfully ignorant of other races .In America we are taught we need to become whiter to be better and contributing citzens.If you refuse we are considered selfish ignorant,unpatriotic and generally dangerous.That is a man problem folks are taught to abandon their culture outright .Nobody says look at the amazing contributions you all made and the sacrifices your people have made and how that has earned your right to be here.I still see older white folks and younger white people say with arrogance if they dont want to be apart of american culture and whitewash themselves ( not that exactly) then they should leave or revert to second class status.This one of the root problems. To say america is a melting pot it sure doesn't like when other folks bring something to the pot besides more salt.We will have to accept the fact that all races who are not white have contributed and are an integral part of american society and they make up the fabric of america.Not just novelty aspects such as cuisine. I mean things like philosophy ,politics,Art,literature .A month by itself or a week of remembrance will simply not do.

 

[danzinreallife]

First and foremost, America is %*@%%@* crazy when it comes to race. I can't even comprehend what it's like. New Zealand is pretty much a non-racial paradise, if that makes any sense.


I remember one day when Mayor told me this old white lady called him a n__ completely seriously, for me that's just like what the !%+%?

seriously? I can't actually comprehend calling somebody that. I was discussing it with my mum the other day and told her about that and she's just like "woah? Seriously? I never knew that." She wasn't aware that it is still like that over there. We are pretty naive when it comes to race here. Generally everybody is cool with everybody.



However I don't understand why OP would not like checking African-American just because he's never been to Africa and doesn't identify with them. That whole thing is about your ancestry and what runs through your blood. Not who you identify with.

Checking off the Caucasian box in the NT survey this week was weird for me though. Here I either check off European or New Zealander

yes, we have our own box to tick for anybody who doesn't want to tick their actual ancestry; but we never have one marked Caucasian.

 

[hymen man]

off topic but still Race related:

I went to McDonalds like a week ago and me and this white lady got there around the same exact time and I pulled into the drive thru ahead of her, so after like a minute of waiting behind us (there were like 3 cars infront of me) she pulls up to go inside instead of waiting and as I look over, she's mouthing off to me as she's coming out of the car and is like "You think since you're Mexican the rules don't apply to you? I know you probably failed all your classes and dropped out of high school but thats not how we do things around here you stupid SP*&." I was dumbfounded, one because... we got there at the same exact time as pulled in from 2 different entrances... So I simply just go "Lady, we got here exactly at the same time.. why can't you just wait an extra 5 minutes to get food rather to mouth off racial slurs?" She continued mumbling stuff as she was walkin' inside sayin' she'll "kick my *@%" and to "keep it movin'"

I just had the salty face on after the whole thing. It's just sad there are people like that out there everywhere and they conceal it, but when something small happens, like a light switch their ignorance comes into play and they just snap. She was like a late 20s early 30's tomboyish lady who had an Ecko shirt on.. I was shook.

I'm not Mexican... if that matters.

 

[dmbrhs]

Originally Posted by DCAllAmerican

Originally Posted by Toilet Terror

hate applying for jobs and having to pick African American smh

How do you think we should identify ourselves. Something I have been thinking about a lot lately

I had a professor in college (black guy, from the south) who said he was never cool with the title of African-American. He was perfectly fine with being called black. Then all of a sudden there was this movement forced upon the culture to identify as African-American. He had no connection with his ancestry outside of the United States, so being lumped in with the African-American movement was invalid to him. It was a very interesting conversation.

 

[bboy1827]

Read through responses. Some good, some ridiculous.


Race, is constructed. It is constructed to separate people. To say person A is different from person B because of where their ancestors are from. When in fact, it shouldn't' matter where your ancestors are from, it should matter where you're from and who you are. People like to look at the good side of their ancestry and ignore the other. Ok, black people came from Africa, what did they do before that? They had a rich history of philosophy, math, science etc. They don't report the violence, the oppression, the fact that we sold each other into slavery over our tribal history. They don't report the fact that we were just as bad as all Europeans, the Europeans were just more efficient at world domination, and trust... just based off African history, Africans were just as ambitious as any other 'race' of people.

Point is, my race is American, if we get to chose what race we are, because as a black man I could just as easily say I'm "Nigerian-American" as I could say "African-American" which is !%%!#@#!, but thats neither here nor there. I chose to be an American, an ethnicity who created a country against an Empire. A people who fought slavery and fought for freedom through the eyes of oppression. A people who are willing to stand up to even it's own government for justice. Thats the people I want to be.

Idk that much about Africa, but I know I choose to remain here.

 

[seniosoul]

Originally Posted by ThunderChunk69

Originally Posted by beh235

society is built on division, though.

yup, when there is a major problem e.g. september eleventh, all of that is pushed to the side.
if some outside life force came to harm the planet i feel everybody will be on the same team.

i see division as a tactic to gain the upper hand and take power and control, so whoever has he upper hand can manipulate as they please
sort of how the police capture 2 or more suspects, they immediately separate, interrogate, and manipulate.

 

[me no pass]

Originally Posted by AntonLaVey

Originally Posted by WhatsLosinLike

Originally Posted by dadecounty11

Is a white person who was born and raised in Africa, then moved to the US still an African American?

...

This dude is more Nigerian than I am

 

[Nouss]

^ this dude puts my pidgin to shame.2 years living in a country where it is heavily spoken and all i can say is" di man, you de wan chop?"

 

[antonlavey]

Originally Posted by enlightenedespot

^ this dude puts my pidgin to shame.2 years living in a country where it is heavily spoken and all i can say is" di man, you de wan chop?"

No b small, no b small

Not being able to speak Ibo is one of my biggest regrets in life, I dunno where my parents went wrong

-but I get envious when I hear my Asian friends speaking their language

I can understand it semi fluently tho

My mom stay tryna gossip and have convos behind my back in Ibo like I don't know what she's talkign about

 

[shogun]

It is what it is.  We like putting everything into categories.  Just don't let what you check on a form define you because it shouldn't.

 

[mrbrown]

When a white person asks...... Im American

everyone else....... you get the background

 

[2lipslegit]

Originally Posted by MrBrown

When a white person asks...... Im American

everyone else....... you get the background

I hate when white americans start talking about being irish or german or french or whatever, theyve lived here for 200 years, american in my book

The worst is fools blaming their behavior or habits on it. "Oh we like to eat and have a good time cuz were Italian. Its only natural we're overweight."

 

[finnns2003]

As a multiracial person, I definitely try to ignore race. It's such a waste of time, but then again media projects it, society projects it, it gets tired.