Race - Rational?

[Better Future]

What is your race? Is it an important part of your identity? Is it time to leave this concept behind?

[AynRand]

I am white. My personal opinion is that my race has little to do with who I am as a person, and I wouldn't consider it an important part of my identity. Although subconsciously I'm sure my race does play some role in shaping what I consider to be my identity. 

 

Is it time to leave this concept behind?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Would you mind elaborating a little more?

[Crallask]

Is it time to leave this concept behind?

Would you like to make that case to medical professionals? 

[Better Future]

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

 

In our current culture the topic of race is brought up very often. We hear it in day to day life, we see it in the news, we see it in surveys. Much was made of the fact that the American president is "black". Leaving the concept behind would be just that. It would be put into the dustbin of history along with others like slavery and patriarchy.

[Pepin]

Personally, my skin color is white, but I identify as African American.

 

You see, when a person's genetic makeup is aligned with the race they identify with, say if someone's skin color and or ethnicity is asian and they identify as being asian, they are biorace asian. It is possible for your racial identity to diverge from your race.

 

For instance, Barrack Obama's genetics point towards him being biracial, but he identifies as black. Although he has genes in common with whites, he does not identify as being white.

 

This is portrayed in the media quite often. For instance, Carlton Banks for The Fresh Price of Bel-Air is genetically black, but identifies as being white. This is exemplified in an episode where they flash back to the past, and Carlton is set into shock when his mother tells him that he is white.

 

But to be serious, my skin color is white, but I don't derive any of my identity from my skin color.

 

I am often told that I am extremely white, and I don't doubt that I fall into the white stereotypes, but I could care less about my race. If I was part of some race that went through some slaughter in the recent past, I wouldn't feel more connected to that event just because I share a few more genes with them, rather I would have the same emotion that I do with everyone.

 

I'm not saying that I am color blind as that would be somewhat akin to being gender blind, rather I don't accept the concept of generating identity through accidental properties. I'd instead prefer to derive my identity through means that I can control.

 

With that said, I don't know if racial identity ought to be a thing or not. Though some of the above is intended to poke fun at sexuality theory, people do derive aspects of who they are from their genetic makeup, and sometimes it diverges from what people typically associate with that genetic makeup. I can't make sense of why anybody would do that, but evolution might be involved.

[Better Future]

Personally, my skin color is white, but I identify as African American.

 

Are you saying that your ancestors were brought over to America from Africa and you suffer from vitiligo?

 

It is possible for your racial identity to diverge from your race.

 

How can your racial identity be anything other than your race?

 

Barrack Obama's genetics point towards him being biracial, but he identifies as black.

 

That is understandable as the melanin gives his skin a darker tone. Shouldn't he identify as brown though?

 

Carlton Banks for The Fresh Price of Bel-Air is genetically black, but identifies as being white. 

 

How can someone with dark skin identify as white? That is like a brunette identifying as blonde.

[Pepin]

But to be serious, my skin color is white, but I don't derive any of my identity from my skin color.

 

I am often told that I am extremely white, and I don't doubt that I fall into the white stereotypes, but I could care less about my race. If I was part of some race that went through some slaughter in the recent past, I wouldn't feel more connected to that event just because I share a few more genes with them, rather I would have the same emotion that I do with everyone.

 

I'm not saying that I am color blind as that would be somewhat akin to being gender blind, rather I don't accept the concept of generating identity through accidental properties. I'd instead prefer to derive my identity through means that I can control.

 

With that said, I don't know if racial identity ought to be a thing or not. Though some of the above is intended to poke fun at sexuality theory, people do derive aspects of who they are from their genetic makeup, and sometimes it diverges from what people typically associate with that genetic makeup. I can't make sense of why anybody would do that, but evolution might be involved.

How can someone with dark skin identify as white? That is like a brunette identifying as blonde.

I think you missed the part where I said I was poking fun and that I find racial identity weird, so I quoted it above. I don't understand why people identify racially, so I can't answer how or why, all I can say is that it happens and give examples.

 

Weaboos are another good example as they are typically white westerners who identify with Japanese culture and attempt to be Japanese.

 

Funny enough, I have heard many brunette girls identify as blond. They will say that they might have brown hair, but they should be considered blond because of how they act. There is also the act of calling someone blonde when they do something stupid or make little sense. Below is a thread I found with a quick search.

 

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080722144029AAMSRRw

 

It gets confusing as it is more to do with culture and less with race, but the majority of people who are within that culture belong to single race. We make stereotypes up that "this is black culture" because many blacks are involved, and then we see it as being more of an inherent racial thing than a cultural thing.

 

As this happens, it doesn't make sense to people for a white man to be into black culture, as to them, if you aren't black you can't be black, which just means you can't take on the traits and behaviors of black culture. It is kind of like the weaboos, it seems weird for someone to get super into Japanese culture who isn't Japanese.

 

The issue with this is that culture had nothing to do with race. Race certainly does determine some things, but what people think of as being white, black, Hispanic, our whatever is more cultural than it is racial. If we were to talk factually identifying with a race, it would be more like "I burn up in the sun so easily that I identify with gingers because we share the same plight".

 

I would be more in favor of just culture without the racial tags, but that may not be how humans work.

[Better Future]

I think you missed the part where I said I was poking fun

 

Thanks for the correction, it is a relief to know that I misunderstood you. I am in complete agreement with you.

 

Excellent point about the blonde stereotype. It demonstrates how physical attributes can be perceived as indicators of personality traits. 

 

It is natural for humans to generalise, it is rational in terms of brain power efficiency. My issue is that when it comes to human populations that efficiency comes at the cost of division and often conflict. I think the species would be far more unified if we could transcend the concept of race, along with religion and statism of course.