As of this writing, I’ve had well over 4000 conversations online. Most of them about “race.” Yet I’m painfully aware that race, as most people think of it, doesn’t exist. In my article, The Progressive Rebranding Of Racism, I pointed out that the concept of “race” is a lie that we’d all be better off abandoning and J had questions about what that would look like in practice. Specifically about whether defining himself by the “black” parts of his family tree could be a way of…abandoning the idea that the “black” parts of his family tree define him.
Just as very few people share the high quality of your brain/education, very few people will understand or appreciate the thoughts and ideas your brain produces. Your logic and empiricism are impeccable. Sadly, that will make almost no difference. I could count on the fingers of both hands the number of Medium writers who would even understand, much less internalize, these ideas.
Part of the reason for that, I fear, is that lots of people benefit from the twisted logic of race. It has become a social cudgel. "Race consciousness" is on a virtually vertical upward trajectory now. "White identity" is now a "thing" in the US. Division is growing by the day, fueled by anti-racism and white grievance.
So, what can we do? I honestly don't know, except help the people who need help regardless of what they look like
What I do know is that it is very valiant of you to be this lonely voice of reason. Stay safe.
Right on. So well said, and I appreciate your brief discussion of reparations. It's helpful to bring that kind of "story problem" to the table to help make the abstract concept of oppression more tangible! I always love how kind and patient you are to your dialogue partners, but also bluntly honest about your terms of engagement. You should teach workshops about that!
It's sad/wearying/frustrating/all the negative things, yet also somehow poignant, how often it is overlooked that "race" and for that matter "gender" are superficial constructs based on compartmentalizing people when either we are genetically basically the same (the lie of race) or each of us has our own unique way of acting out our biological sex (the essentialism inherent in discussions of gender). The poignancy comes from the all-too-human desire to cling to a label in the hopes that it will help determine and even perhaps justify identity. Alas!
I’ve been a bit reluctant to write this as it might be seen as me wanting to argue, I don’t. But I think you may be missing something. It has to do with what is race and what is being ascribed to it as meaningful.
A very small part of our genome carries physical characteristics common to subsets of humanity referred to a race.
When my wife first came to America I was stationed in the state of Georgia, my first experience living south of the Mason-Dickson line. A white woman in my presence said, “They all look alike to me” with reference to black people. She could be an ID witness in a trial! I mentioned it to my wife and she stunned me by saying, “White people look alike to me.” That seemed astonishing to me, but now I get it.
The white lady, at a time before black people commonly being on TV and in movies in the segregated south and my wife, fresh out of Southeast Asia had something in common. They were overwhelmed by the common physical (visual) characteristics of a group (race) that they had little exposure to. In my wife’s case, although she is very brown skinned, it wasn’t the whiteness. It was the lack of characteristics that were a part of her norm; straight black hair, high cheekbones, eye shape, smaller size, etc.
Just as she, and now I after 50+ years of close proximity to Asians see subdivision within the group called Asian; Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Southeast Asians, Indians have subset physical characteristics within the larger group. I grew up at a time when the subset differences in “white people” were more commonly thought of. The fair skinned blond, the freckled ginger, the olive-skinned Southern Mediterranean, etc. “Race” as a dominant set of physical characteristics is not as simple as black, white, or brown. The differenced are not exclusive. My wife was mistaken for Navajo by a Cherokee (the subset of interest to the American Indians (they call themselves that)). Since I have little exposure to Africans where “black” is a norm, I am not inclined to see the differences that I suspect that the racial subgroups there see other than Pigmy vs. Somali, etc.
There is no reason to assign a value upon any of that. A collection of physical appearance characteristics that are highly noticeable. The trouble starts when people notice cultural/subcultural differences which they choose to assign value (this superior/inferior to that) which is neither because of racial characteristics nor superior/inferior by a universal standard. But they try to make it about that.
Race, as a set of dominant physical characteristics of subsets of humanity does exist. Since there is no reason to rank them on a totem of superiority/inferiority, it should be, in my opinion, not be of importance in our view of each other. It is a real thing that only becomes a toxic issue when cultural tribalism rears its head.
𝐀𝐬 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐭, 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐢𝐬. I agree with your thoughts with regard to Steve’s, but from a perspective that is a bit different. You don't need to pay good money to understand why my opinion is different from yours.
Glenn Loury recently featured Vincent Lloyd, a black, antiracist, and fairly 'woke' associate professor at Villanova University whose seminar was 'blown up' by a young black student crazy named Keisha and several other fellow student crazies who expelled two students with 'unorthodox' views and accused Lloyd of perpetuating 'anti-black racism'. The grand irony is that Lloyd was largely dismissive of critics of woke excesses and now has become a victim of them.
Race, and feeling oh-pressed by racism, is just too important to some black people to give up readily.
Steve,
Just as very few people share the high quality of your brain/education, very few people will understand or appreciate the thoughts and ideas your brain produces. Your logic and empiricism are impeccable. Sadly, that will make almost no difference. I could count on the fingers of both hands the number of Medium writers who would even understand, much less internalize, these ideas.
Part of the reason for that, I fear, is that lots of people benefit from the twisted logic of race. It has become a social cudgel. "Race consciousness" is on a virtually vertical upward trajectory now. "White identity" is now a "thing" in the US. Division is growing by the day, fueled by anti-racism and white grievance.
So, what can we do? I honestly don't know, except help the people who need help regardless of what they look like
What I do know is that it is very valiant of you to be this lonely voice of reason. Stay safe.
Right on. So well said, and I appreciate your brief discussion of reparations. It's helpful to bring that kind of "story problem" to the table to help make the abstract concept of oppression more tangible! I always love how kind and patient you are to your dialogue partners, but also bluntly honest about your terms of engagement. You should teach workshops about that!
It's sad/wearying/frustrating/all the negative things, yet also somehow poignant, how often it is overlooked that "race" and for that matter "gender" are superficial constructs based on compartmentalizing people when either we are genetically basically the same (the lie of race) or each of us has our own unique way of acting out our biological sex (the essentialism inherent in discussions of gender). The poignancy comes from the all-too-human desire to cling to a label in the hopes that it will help determine and even perhaps justify identity. Alas!
Steve, after reading this:
https://medium.com/comrade-morlocks-journal/barbara-j-fields-comments-on-the-racecraft-of-the-1619-project-59b3a18414dd
I thought to find this:
https://www.amazon.com/Racecraft-Soul-Inequality-American-Life/dp/1781683131
You may have already read them.
I’ve been a bit reluctant to write this as it might be seen as me wanting to argue, I don’t. But I think you may be missing something. It has to do with what is race and what is being ascribed to it as meaningful.
A very small part of our genome carries physical characteristics common to subsets of humanity referred to a race.
When my wife first came to America I was stationed in the state of Georgia, my first experience living south of the Mason-Dickson line. A white woman in my presence said, “They all look alike to me” with reference to black people. She could be an ID witness in a trial! I mentioned it to my wife and she stunned me by saying, “White people look alike to me.” That seemed astonishing to me, but now I get it.
The white lady, at a time before black people commonly being on TV and in movies in the segregated south and my wife, fresh out of Southeast Asia had something in common. They were overwhelmed by the common physical (visual) characteristics of a group (race) that they had little exposure to. In my wife’s case, although she is very brown skinned, it wasn’t the whiteness. It was the lack of characteristics that were a part of her norm; straight black hair, high cheekbones, eye shape, smaller size, etc.
Just as she, and now I after 50+ years of close proximity to Asians see subdivision within the group called Asian; Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Southeast Asians, Indians have subset physical characteristics within the larger group. I grew up at a time when the subset differences in “white people” were more commonly thought of. The fair skinned blond, the freckled ginger, the olive-skinned Southern Mediterranean, etc. “Race” as a dominant set of physical characteristics is not as simple as black, white, or brown. The differenced are not exclusive. My wife was mistaken for Navajo by a Cherokee (the subset of interest to the American Indians (they call themselves that)). Since I have little exposure to Africans where “black” is a norm, I am not inclined to see the differences that I suspect that the racial subgroups there see other than Pigmy vs. Somali, etc.
There is no reason to assign a value upon any of that. A collection of physical appearance characteristics that are highly noticeable. The trouble starts when people notice cultural/subcultural differences which they choose to assign value (this superior/inferior to that) which is neither because of racial characteristics nor superior/inferior by a universal standard. But they try to make it about that.
Race, as a set of dominant physical characteristics of subsets of humanity does exist. Since there is no reason to rank them on a totem of superiority/inferiority, it should be, in my opinion, not be of importance in our view of each other. It is a real thing that only becomes a toxic issue when cultural tribalism rears its head.
𝐀𝐬 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐭, 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐢𝐬. I agree with your thoughts with regard to Steve’s, but from a perspective that is a bit different. You don't need to pay good money to understand why my opinion is different from yours.
Glenn Loury recently featured Vincent Lloyd, a black, antiracist, and fairly 'woke' associate professor at Villanova University whose seminar was 'blown up' by a young black student crazy named Keisha and several other fellow student crazies who expelled two students with 'unorthodox' views and accused Lloyd of perpetuating 'anti-black racism'. The grand irony is that Lloyd was largely dismissive of critics of woke excesses and now has become a victim of them.
Race, and feeling oh-pressed by racism, is just too important to some black people to give up readily.