FYI: Hillary is NOT White.

[L. Coyote]

I just saw another post using the term "black" in a political context, the Presidential "race."
There is no such thing as "race" and it is offensive to "race" people.

I find the terms "white" and "black" and this usage simply offensive, likewise for other "race" designations.
Perhaps it is time to move to the next level, the truth and the facts about human relationships (at least on DU).

MOST IMPORTANTLY, it is unscientific. Anthropology 101, there is a scientific consensus that races do not exist. Race is a cultural device for "othering" parts of the human species into mental categories. Races are nothing except mental constructions. They have no external reality. Race, like religion, is a belief system. A simple count of ancestors (using basic addition so no excuses for not getting this one), 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8, 16, 32, 64 .... demolishes any concept of race (The 1,099 Trillion Principle. How many ancestors do we have? http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/ancestors.html ). How can anyone with 1,099 trillion ancestor positions in just the last 1,000 years of their genealogical tree claim a race, or the existence of race? See: http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/ancestors.html "Given 25 years per generation, 40 generations occur in 1000 years.m We each have 1,099 trillion ancestors in the last 1000 years, and double that every 25 years more. "

------------------
"Othering" http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/rww03/othering.htm

Othering is a way of defining and securing one’s own positive identity through the stigmatization of an "other." Whatever the markers of social differentiation that shape the meaning of "us" and "them," whether they are racial, geographic, ethnic, economic or ideological, there is always the danger that they will become the basis for a self-affirmation that depends upon the denigration of the other group. When a group claims to be "chosen by God," the danger multiplies, not only for the "unchosen" other who may be subjected to violence, but for the chosen group itself that is at risk of being undermined .....
------------------

Noone is white or black. I looked up white just to be sure:
1 a: free from color b: of the color of new snow or milk .... Thank goodness noone is actually white! :rofl:

[Bluebear]

1. For people of a certain age, "Black" is a powerful word

Those of us growing up hearing people being called Negros and Coloreds had our progressive bones-in-the-making resonate when the word "black" came into favor.

"Black is beautiful".

[L. Coyote]

9. This still promoted seperatism because it still supports the idea of separation.

Instead of saying we are one family, this was a half-measure replacing one insult with another divisive distinction.

[JVS]

2. Who are these race people of whom you speak?

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Was Dale Earnhart a race person?

I've been hearing a lot about NASCAR voters. Maybe they're the race people.

[951-Riverside]

3. Hillary is European-American and Obama is Kenyan/European-American n/t

[Cleita]

4. Back in the Jurassic when I took Antro 101, my teacher

made the point to our mostly "white appearing" class that we all had African genes in our ancestry and that most Americans of African descent had a lot of European genes in their ancestry. This was quite a statement to make back in the days when we were still practicing legal apartheid in the South and social apartheid everywhere else. That was a pin dropping moment in that lecture.

[L. Coyote]

8. Maintaining class based on race relies on belief in races in the first instance.

[Hardrada]

6. Nordic, Alpine, Mediterranean branches of the caucasians

are better than the too vague "white" anyway.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

7. Fish Give Clues to Human Skin Color Differences

:rofl: 'Research in the tiny stickleback fish could shed light on skin color changes in humans.'

FRIDAY, Dec. 14 (HealthDay News) -- "Research in the fish could shed light on skin color changes in humans.
A team at Stanford University School of Medicine has spotted a gene that's responsible for color differences in both species."
http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/071214/fish-give-clues-to-human-skin-color-changes.htm


'The Biology of Skin Color: Black and White"
"The evolution of race was as simple as the politics of race is complex-
--a strong, somewhat predictable correlation between skin color and the strength of sunlight across the globe. But they also show a deeper, more surprising process at work: Skin color, they say, is largely a matter of vitamins."

--"Jablonski, now chairman of the anthropology department at the California Academy of Sciences, begins by assuming that our earliest ancestors had fair skin just like chimpanzees, our closest biological relatives.
Between 4.5 million and 2 million years ago, early humans moved from the rain forest and onto the East African savanna."
--Hairless skin, however, is particularly vulnerable to damage from sunlight. Scientists long assumed that humans evolved melanin, the main determinant of skin color, to absorb or disperse ultraviolet light. But what is it about ultraviolet light that melanin protects against?
--Some researchers pointed to the threat of skin cancer. But cancer usually develops late in life, after a person has already reproduced. Others suggested that sunburned nipples would have hampered breast-feeding. But a slight tan is enough to protect mothers against that problem."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/3/text_pop/l_073_04.html
Geez..I don't know about Hillary 'being white'... but I need to take some vitamins-ASAP... :rofl:

[kurth]

10. But she's 100% female

no?

[Rosemary2205]

11. You've never seen my husband, have you??

Oh, he's not "copy paper" white, but he's pretty dang near close. And standing next to me, a black woman so dark my skin has a bluish tinge under florescent lights -- he looks VERY white. The man LIKES Barry Manilow and has even worse moves than good old Barry.

the man IS the definition of white. His pic should be in Wiki under "white man"


:) :)

[xchrom]

13. gasp -- barry manilow?!?!?!

[Rosemary2205]

14. And Barbra Streisand!!

And he belongs to a Barbershop Quartet.

We are talking white white white!! LOL :)

[xchrom]

19. obviously --i can forgive La Streisand -- however

a barbershop quartet and barry manilow has me ITCHING to call Gay Central Committee for an emergency gay agenda makeover.

[Rosemary2205]

21. LOL -- funny thing that

The man is 100% hetero. I won't bore you with how I know for sure - but trust me - the man is just plain white, whiter, whitest! :)

Did I mention the plaid golf pants?

[xchrom]

22. GACK!!! -- golf pants --

oh no -- he's straight alright --


but the urge to take the white edge off is tempting.

just a LEEEEETLE trip to the men's couture at niemans -- a little thelma houston at the hair stylists -- then off to get some shoes -- and hiding the barry manilow.

however -- i bet you two are the cutest couple ever! and you sound just adorable -- and i bet he'd be lost without you.

[treestar]

12. More accurately we could use "beige" and "brown."

And it would make things seem less black and white. :hide:

[Occulus]

15. No, she's not.

She's beige, politically.

:silly:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

16. I like how Obama responded to the charge that he was not "black enough"

He replied that those people should be with him when he's trying to catch a cab.

[Unvanguard]

17. Yes, race is socio-cultural.

Nevertheless, it exists.

Clinton is white.

[panzerfaust]

18. I love post-modernism

"MOST IMPORTANTLY, it is unscientific. Anthropology 101, there is a scientific consensus that races do not exist. Race is a cultural device ..."

The first thing most people notice about another person is their sex (thus the upset when they cannot tell), the second is race.

Whilst there is difficulty defining the precise boundaries of a race, 'race' is a commonly accepted biologically useful term eg: Felis silvestris lybica, and Felis silvestris catus. A Khoikhoi is not going to be mistaken for an Inuit.

[izzybeans]

20. You can't deny the sociological existence of it as an identity that carries a history

It is a privileged position to be able to ignore that history and negate its meaning.