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This is a thread about multiculturalism.
When people say "we need to stop identifying with skin color" they are either being ignorant or racist.
For example, If a Korean-American identifies as such, they are not identifying with (ahem) "yellow skin".
Instead...
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When people say "we need to stop identifying with skin color" they are either being ignorant or racist.
For example, If a Korean-American identifies as such, they are not identifying with (ahem) "yellow skin".
Instead...
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...they are identifying with a mix of past history and current patterns that make a culture.
Similarly, I identify as black-American, and I can list elements of the black-American condition. Here are 10:
(1) My ancestors were slaves
(2) My ancestors were sharecroppers
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Similarly, I identify as black-American, and I can list elements of the black-American condition. Here are 10:
(1) My ancestors were slaves
(2) My ancestors were sharecroppers
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(3) I have bimodal kin networks clustered in the "Old South" and industrial centers in the North
(4) The music I listened to growing up was Soul, R&B, and Rap - the music station I listened to was the "black" or "urban" one
(5) I eat a lot of Soul Food
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(4) The music I listened to growing up was Soul, R&B, and Rap - the music station I listened to was the "black" or "urban" one
(5) I eat a lot of Soul Food
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(6) My kin exhibit high levels of religiosity
(7) They are all Christian - most Baptist
(7) My kin networks do not have a lot of wealth
(8) There is an expectation that the head of the house is the oldest female in the house (often the grandmother)
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(7) They are all Christian - most Baptist
(7) My kin networks do not have a lot of wealth
(8) There is an expectation that the head of the house is the oldest female in the house (often the grandmother)
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(9) The movies that get replayed in my friends and families' homes are not yours (The Temptations Miniseries...Black Panther)
(10) The familial expectations of caretaking strongly resist things like Retirement Homes and Mental Institutions
Not knowing this is ignorance.
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(10) The familial expectations of caretaking strongly resist things like Retirement Homes and Mental Institutions
Not knowing this is ignorance.
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All groups that were fortunate enough to retain an ethnic identity - Chinese-Americans, Nigerian-Americans, etc - can complete this same exercise.
I even suggest white Americans - people of European ancestry with no personal ethnic identification - also do this.
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I even suggest white Americans - people of European ancestry with no personal ethnic identification - also do this.
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They are simply not as aware.
When they wrote those essays in middle school about "What it means to be an American" they were doing the same thing I did in this thread, they just didn't think of it that way because the formula is:
Whiteness=Americanness.
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When they wrote those essays in middle school about "What it means to be an American" they were doing the same thing I did in this thread, they just didn't think of it that way because the formula is:
Whiteness=Americanness.
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In my case, I can say with pride that I am an American *and* a Black-American.
The racism comes in when people think racial problems can be solved by getting people like me to "think differently" and ignore the culture we identify with.
"We are all individuals"...
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The racism comes in when people think racial problems can be solved by getting people like me to "think differently" and ignore the culture we identify with.
"We are all individuals"...
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...they say. Meanwhile, this "individualism" has as a default setting Americanness=Whiteness.
Thus "we are all individuals" = "we are all white folks".
This is racist by not seeing the value in others.
I prefer a modern and evidence-based view of society, where...
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Thus "we are all individuals" = "we are all white folks".
This is racist by not seeing the value in others.
I prefer a modern and evidence-based view of society, where...
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...we combat racism by elevating racial and ethnic minorities to equal terms with white Americans and not attempting to erase them - multiculturalism.
Once we accept that groups are equal, it is easier to have compassion for their needs and interests.
Ironically...
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Once we accept that groups are equal, it is easier to have compassion for their needs and interests.
Ironically...
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...once we accept that groups are equal, we can then accept that the individuals making up those groups are equal and deserving of compassion.
This seems to be the path that America is on. There has never been a better...
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This seems to be the path that America is on. There has never been a better...
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...time to be a racial minority in the US.
Those 10 elements of black culture I listed above, I see all over American media. My group is more respected. And thus *I* am more respected. This is a direct result of multiculturalism.
But there are folks out there who...
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Those 10 elements of black culture I listed above, I see all over American media. My group is more respected. And thus *I* am more respected. This is a direct result of multiculturalism.
But there are folks out there who...
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...are unhappy with this trend.
They push back against multiculturalism, asking racial and ethnic minorities to "forget about skin color" and to supplicate themselves to some imagined universalism which just so happens to be the culture of Whiteness.
This is racism.
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They push back against multiculturalism, asking racial and ethnic minorities to "forget about skin color" and to supplicate themselves to some imagined universalism which just so happens to be the culture of Whiteness.
This is racism.
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