One word: qualifiers. Like if everytime I said the word "race" I followed it with the phrase, "which is not based in reality." And everytime after I made refference to a person's skin color I said, "which means skin color alone," we could desensitize ourselves to the concept of race. It is proven through psychology the benefit of positive thinking. Change your thoughts, change your emotions, change your actions, change your life They say. Because, in my opinion, the best way to deal with a falsehood like race, would be to undo its claim to validity by simplly correcting our ways of thinking about it; Treating as if it is nonexistant and, in that way, hopefully abolishing it as a problem entirely. Because if we continue to talk about race like it as a real thing, no matter how we approach it we are perpetuating it. It is best to deal with this societal problem as you would best deal with a personal one- by forgiving, moving on, and, in so doing, leaving the past issues where they belong- the past.
No that's just censorship and censorship never solves anything. It just hides problems. You can't run away from your problems, you can't hide, so you have to deal with them. Racism is a big problem in the world, especially in America, and i would truly, really, love to see it go away. But it's not going to. We all come out of Africa, and we're all tribal and xenophobic.
There are many Whites who DO NOT believe that they came out of Africa. They will cuss you out if you tell them that.
Completely hypothetical, but... if it was impossible for different races to interbreed... and... different races all reproduced at the same (or similar) rates, then I would have no problem completely ignoring race I'm just a little afraid certain ethnicities will eventually disappear, either through intermixing or severe economic competition with other groups.
There are a few on this forum. Just check out the Science or Religion section. Using the keyword Creationist will help.
I don't see how that even matters. According to evolutionists, we descended from the same ancient ancestor as cows did. But what is so unbelievable about the possibility all the different animals and races were created separately ?
Racism cannot just be willed out of existence. In order to do away with racism and race, we must first do away with the material conditions that necessitate their existence. In a word, capitalism.
The oldest known hominid fossil was found in Africa, dated to about 3.2 million years ago. That's a pretty hard thing to deny. You can be argumentative, you can spin it all you want, but the proof is there.
The easiest way to get rid of racism is to not give it "air time", uphold the laws and don't give these right-wing idiots any media time .. BTW that goes for all racists including non-white ones.
Racism is never going away completely. It's far too ingrained in our culture to be race-conscious. At best we can marginalize racism. Racism has already been defeated on the political front. On an individual level there are always going to be racists but you can make a difference in the fight against racism by not being a racist yourself and discouraging racism in others.
You really don't think race is based in reality? Talk to any forensic anthropologist and he'll tell you different. Race also is an indicator of culture. The cultures of Blacks, Whites, Asians, etc., are very different here in the US. Refusing to acknowledge these differences does not make them go away. I think the 'solution' proposed would actually exacerbate the problem.
Race is not a valid biological concept and certainly isn't an indicator of culture. Forensic Anthropologists use socially constructed racial categories that are known to society. Their work depends on the acceptance of these categories when they examine the anthropometric traits of skeletons. Read this article for more on that topic: The Concept of Race in Contemporary Anthropology To combat racism on a moral level one need only regard racism as socially unacceptable regardless of whether race exists or not. I applaud the scientists who combat racism on a biological level by making a distinction between existing human genetic variation and racial classification.
I'm confused here. You claim first that race isn't real and then claim it is real. Social constructs are no less real than physical constructs. Government is a case in point: while social, it is very real. To deny a thing is real is to preclude meaningful conversation about it. To deny the reality of race in the US is a form of moral cowardice, an avoidance of a painful subject. You don't think race is an indicator of culture? What world do you live on? Remember Ebonics? If not, google it - it's fascinating. The whole idea behind it was based on the idea that US Blacks had a relatively homogenous culture.
Race as a category society uses to make divisions between populations has social reality but doesn't have reality as a biological construct. The article I provided you explains this in more detail. We are not biologically differentiated in the way that racialists believe. Not really. For instance you can deny that God is real and have a meaningful conversation about religion. The denial that races exist is a scientific position not an attempt to avoid honest discussion about race-relations. No one denies the reality of race as a concept with a complex history in America. You can have a meaningful conversation about race-relations without adhering to the idea that race exists as a biological concept. Biological concepts of race and social concepts of race are different. No. It's simply not. Culture is very complex and there are many cultures. I don't believe that skin color labels can be generalized as cultures. An idea that is incredibly fallacious. You can say that there is a Black community with cultural customs but there is no such thing as a Black culture nor a White or Asian etc. culture. Race is not culture. Countries have cultures. Communities have cultures. Race and culture and not inextricably linked.
Right. So rather than saying 'black culture in the US' as shorthand, I should say 'the culture of the black community in the US' because no one knows what the first phrase means, while everyone understands the second. Just as everyone knows that 'tiger moms' are not a feature of Asian culture in the US, Kwanzaa is not a feature of US black culture, unconscious racial privilege of US WASPs, and latinos do not in fact ever celebrate quinceanera. Race is a pretty good indicator of who is more likely to celebrate what holidays and what a person's values are simply because any given race is more likely to be exposed to those celebrations and value sets. It is not racism to acknowledge a truth. Attempting to paper over and deny a truth will indeed prevent any honest and meaningful discussion of that truth, just as denying evidence about God either way would preclude a meaningful discussion of His (non)existence. How could we discuss chemistry if I denied the existence of elements beyond earth, air, fire and water?
If you want to argue that race is a real and meaningful biological category then all you have to do is prove it. I've already provided you an article from a Biological Anthropologist that addresses this topic. Did you read it?
