I think we're almost on the same page here with race. The language analogy is helping. But there's a crucial point that's missing.
Have you ever tried to learn a very foreign language? Like, as a native English speaker, tried to learn some form of Chinese? It's very difficult for two reasons. First, there are sounds the Chinese make that do not have analogues in English, and we tend to map these sounds onto ones we already know when picking up the language, and they get stuck. That leaves us with an accent that is very hard to eradicate and can even mangle our speech completely.
And second, Chinese is a tonal language. That means by varying the pitch of your voice between high and low, you actually change the meaning and structure of your words. We use tone to convey emotion and intent behind words almost exclusively, and using it to change meaning or grammar is a totally foreign idea to us, and to learn it we have to push aside a huge amount of our emotional expression, and re-learn it around the new language.
The point is, because we are already native speakers of another language, it is actually a big uphill battle learning this new language, because we have to redefine many categorizations of sounds (to reduce our accent) and we have to use sound in a totally different way.
In other words, we've been "calibrated" to communicate with one peer group, and now that "calibration" is working against us when we want to communicate with a different one.
This is different from spatial awareness. You learn spatial awareness once, and only tweak it as you go. Gravity is the same for everyone. Balance works the same way for everyone with four limbs and a spine. The length of your reach and the weight of your body changes only very slowly and that training is never an impediment unless there's some kind of accident (like you lose a limb) or you go into space, or go deep-sea diving without training first.
Race is like language. Not like spatial awareness. The shorthand and the distinctions you have learned to make with race are:
1. not universal, even across what you call "your own" race, 2. not always an advantage - and can be a huge disadvantage at times, 3. not subject to an objective standard for quality - only a subjective one.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-02-12 01:30 am (UTC)Have you ever tried to learn a very foreign language? Like, as a native English speaker, tried to learn some form of Chinese? It's very difficult for two reasons. First, there are sounds the Chinese make that do not have analogues in English, and we tend to map these sounds onto ones we already know when picking up the language, and they get stuck. That leaves us with an accent that is very hard to eradicate and can even mangle our speech completely.
And second, Chinese is a tonal language. That means by varying the pitch of your voice between high and low, you actually change the meaning and structure of your words. We use tone to convey emotion and intent behind words almost exclusively, and using it to change meaning or grammar is a totally foreign idea to us, and to learn it we have to push aside a huge amount of our emotional expression, and re-learn it around the new language.
The point is, because we are already native speakers of another language, it is actually a big uphill battle learning this new language, because we have to redefine many categorizations of sounds (to reduce our accent) and we have to use sound in a totally different way.
In other words, we've been "calibrated" to communicate with one peer group, and now that "calibration" is working against us when we want to communicate with a different one.
This is different from spatial awareness. You learn spatial awareness once, and only tweak it as you go. Gravity is the same for everyone. Balance works the same way for everyone with four limbs and a spine. The length of your reach and the weight of your body changes only very slowly and that training is never an impediment unless there's some kind of accident (like you lose a limb) or you go into space, or go deep-sea diving without training first.
Race is like language. Not like spatial awareness. The shorthand and the distinctions you have learned to make with race are:
1. not universal, even across what you call "your own" race,
2. not always an advantage - and can be a huge disadvantage at times,
3. not subject to an objective standard for quality - only a subjective one.