politicartoons | Hate Free Zone!

The problem is with your question is you're demanding an absolute in order to accept races -- which is a trick because you're imposing an impossibility. To put it analogously: What is the exact point you go from green to blue? What we identify as blue is actually a spectrum. When you get to the edges of that spectrum, color identification becomes more difficult.

That difficulty doesn't make people turn around and hold colors don't exist.

So, yes, where people have mixed, the typical aesthetic identifiers we use become fuzzy. So what? That doesn't negate races.

Obama for example is half white and half black. But, because of his features, he's considered black. By and large he identifies as a black person as well. And, this isn't coincidence. He can't go around claiming he's a white guy because of those features. No one would buy it.

Hell, look at Talcom X. No one really buys that he's a black guy. But, he does a damn good job of mimicking certain aesthetics.

So, the overall point is that when people say, "Race is just social construct," they're implying that race is a figment of people's imagination. And, that's just not true.

You can't accept tribalism without acknowledging that there are systems in place that serve to identify friend from foe. We developed adaptations to do this sort of identification because we are social creatures, and it is an imperative to be able to distinguish our kin from other entities. We have all kinds of adaptations like this, for example the whites around your eyes are there so that your pack can see where you're looking. Just because this system that allows us to make these identifications can be tricked that doesn't mean that ones tribe is merely a concept.

One's race is empirically verifiable. That doesn't mean you're not going to have cases where it's fuzzy to do so.

I'm not asking you to find the exact point we go from "green" to "blue". I'm not asking you to find the edge cases. I'm not asking you to define the exact borders. Just give me the ideal single example. The point right in the middle of all these spectrums, where it is absolutely beyond all doubt that you are looking at a member of your race. Hell, post a picture of yourself, if you like, or your grandfather or something.

We've already established that you consider your race light-skinned. I want to know what other criteria you've got.

I'm not the arbiter here. These are norms people already grasp. I'm simply referencing them just like everyone else that acknowledges race. I don't know how much info it will take for you to finally snap out of it. Maybe this one will help you:

http://news.psu.edu/story/308588/2014/03/20/research/3-d-model-links-facial-features-and-dna

Not sure what your point is with that study.

Yes, genes correlate with face shape, in some as-yet-unknown but probably quite complicated relationship. So?

That study asked "individuals" to categorize the faces they gathered from a collection of people into four categories. The summary does not say how many "individuals" were asked to do this, or where they came from. Were those individuals Penn State academics? Representatives from the sample group itself? Who knows. Did their categorizations map to the geographic locations of the people whose faces they were categorizing? It doesn't say.

Nope, I just can't figure out what your point is with this. I asked you for your own personal example, you throw this at me. Why? "I'm not the arbiter here"? Yes, you are the arbiter of what YOU call your tribe. Who else would be??

When people say "race is a social construct", they have a point. As I said above - to you, people from China are all one "race", and look no different from people in Tibet, but if you were Chinese, you would be able to recognize Chinese from different regions of the country (as well as Tibetans, who live in "contested lands" according to the Chinese government) and have various opinions about them.

So, you tell me: Are there multiple Chinese races? Or just one?

"The whites around your eyes are there so that your pack can see where you're looking"?

Citation needed, plz kthx

Hate Free Zone!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject