To say that race doesn’t matter is just wrong. You could let it not affect your opinions or policy stances, but it still affects how others perceive you and how you see yourself internally.
No one would think she was black from looking at her. She’s light skinned. And she can belong to whatever culture, ethnicity, etc she likes, but black to me is a statement about skin tone. And while it can be stretched to mean lighter brown coloured individuals in some cases (I would even dispute that), it certainly doesn’t mean light skinned.
She can talk about issues affecting dark skinned people without feeling obligated to call herself black to do so. In fact, if she does feel obliged to do so, that implies that just because you’re light skinned, you can’t care about dark skinned people and see that racism towards them is wrong. Which is, itself, racism.
If a light skinned person can call themselves black, black loses meaning and we have to create a new word to mean what black used to mean, such as ‘dark skinned’, which I’m sure you’ll also start to use to mean light skinned people that have some relationship to dark skinned people, if I give you time.
Skin color shouldn’t matter. She shouldn’t feel like she had to specify of identify with a skin color, white or black, because it shouldn’t affect anything. Separating us into groups based on physical characteristics in non-medical contexts, or when not specifically talking about discrimination because of that physical characteristic, only serves to divide us and pit us against each other. And we need words to describe those physical characteristics that won’t be used to describe culture rather than actual appearance or genetics.
Using black to mean anyone with any relationship to dark skinned people is misleading, but I’ll put up with it, as language evolves, if you promise to not change the meaning of ‘dark skinned’ too.
This discussion remind me a little of the gender/sex topic. While I don’t see how you can be trans-race in the same way as transgender, if we keep dark and light skinned meaning actual skin color, in much the same way we use biologically male and female, at least we’ll have ways to describe people that actually describe their appearance/genetics.
also like. the foods you grew up with. the languages and dialects spoken around you. the authors, stories, and mythologies in your development. the hair products that work for you. (loosely, “culture”)
You know, based on the one drop rule, which was made by white supremacists, she is both Black and Indian. I love this situation because this is like a racist dog whistle. If you’re multiracial you can be both of your parents race, usually it’s the one more convenient for the racists to discriminate against you.
If people are racist to her even though she is light skinned, I would obviously condemn that to the same degree as if they were racist to her and she was dark skinned. Racism is abominable, no matter the skin color of the recipient. Racism doesn’t change the skin color of the recipient, however.
Racism doesn’t change the skin color of the recipient, however.
Kamala Harris is factually Black, and she is factually South-East Asian. Your perception of her skin tone means nothing.
Colorism is a pretty old form of racism - typically perpetrated inter-culturally / within the same ethnicity, or more recently by white supremacists to categorize minorities or other white ethnicities - which tries to define someone as definitively outside of a ethnic group they factually belong to.
I mean, she’s not Caucasian, but she’s definitely not dark black either. Not that her race matters to anything besides her doctor.
To say that race doesn’t matter is just wrong. You could let it not affect your opinions or policy stances, but it still affects how others perceive you and how you see yourself internally.
No one would think she was black from looking at her. She’s light skinned. And she can belong to whatever culture, ethnicity, etc she likes, but black to me is a statement about skin tone. And while it can be stretched to mean lighter brown coloured individuals in some cases (I would even dispute that), it certainly doesn’t mean light skinned.
She can talk about issues affecting dark skinned people without feeling obligated to call herself black to do so. In fact, if she does feel obliged to do so, that implies that just because you’re light skinned, you can’t care about dark skinned people and see that racism towards them is wrong. Which is, itself, racism.
If a light skinned person can call themselves black, black loses meaning and we have to create a new word to mean what black used to mean, such as ‘dark skinned’, which I’m sure you’ll also start to use to mean light skinned people that have some relationship to dark skinned people, if I give you time.
Skin color shouldn’t matter. She shouldn’t feel like she had to specify of identify with a skin color, white or black, because it shouldn’t affect anything. Separating us into groups based on physical characteristics in non-medical contexts, or when not specifically talking about discrimination because of that physical characteristic, only serves to divide us and pit us against each other. And we need words to describe those physical characteristics that won’t be used to describe culture rather than actual appearance or genetics.
Using black to mean anyone with any relationship to dark skinned people is misleading, but I’ll put up with it, as language evolves, if you promise to not change the meaning of ‘dark skinned’ too.
This discussion remind me a little of the gender/sex topic. While I don’t see how you can be trans-race in the same way as transgender, if we keep dark and light skinned meaning actual skin color, in much the same way we use biologically male and female, at least we’ll have ways to describe people that actually describe their appearance/genetics.
sorry can you give me a little about why your opinion should matter here at all
also like. the foods you grew up with. the languages and dialects spoken around you. the authors, stories, and mythologies in your development. the hair products that work for you. (loosely, “culture”)
You know, based on the one drop rule, which was made by white supremacists, she is both Black and Indian. I love this situation because this is like a racist dog whistle. If you’re multiracial you can be both of your parents race, usually it’s the one more convenient for the racists to discriminate against you.
If people are racist to her even though she is light skinned, I would obviously condemn that to the same degree as if they were racist to her and she was dark skinned. Racism is abominable, no matter the skin color of the recipient. Racism doesn’t change the skin color of the recipient, however.
Kamala Harris is factually Black, and she is factually South-East Asian. Your perception of her skin tone means nothing.
Colorism is a pretty old form of racism - typically perpetrated inter-culturally / within the same ethnicity, or more recently by white supremacists to categorize minorities or other white ethnicities - which tries to define someone as definitively outside of a ethnic group they factually belong to.
You could be the lightest of black people and Maga is still gonna hate you