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apart from going through their ancestry records, i dont do that to most people i know, there is actually not too much to race as in skin colour
like you can get a closer genetic match between a 'english' person and an aborigine, than 2 'english' people
most of racial stuff is a load of tosh, and any barely applicable generalisations in regards to physical shape etc can be discounted as there so many people and the fact everyone is different
http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm
I live in a region that has whites (english, germans, irish, french, italians, lithuanians, russians, romanians, swedish, finnish (they're especially cute), polish, hungarian, slovaks and mutts) blacks (light skinned, dark skinned, medium skinned), orientals (from various places), muslims, jews, indians (the kind from India), indians (the kind with red faces that used to shoot arrows at cowboys), spanish, indians from the yucatan, mixed races and Christians. Furthermore, I have worked closely with black americans and actually roomed with a black african.
My experience tells me that there are profound differences between blacks from Africa and from the Northern United States. Moreover, there are striking differences between blacks from the North and the South of the United States. While many of these differences are cultural, so what? They are still very different from each other.
And to be honest the idea there is a difference between people from one part of the world and another is hardly revelatory. The whole point of this debate is surely whether those differences are cultural or not. That's not an irrelevant point.
It's relevant because the assertion was made several times that race is entirely irrelevant to one's identity, completely devoid of any meaning and quite frankly, nothing more than an idiotic and quaint illusion. (in other words: pish-posh) This is erroneous, for obviously even the slightest differences in cultural-ethno-racial-religious identity are plump with meaning and significance. Hence, my former post.
Now, will everyone else have to explain their posts or do you just pick on the Americans?
That has become a meaningless term.
"TORONTO - Doris Moore was shocked when her new couch was delivered to her home with a label that used a racial slur to describe the dark brown shade of the upholstery.
The situation was even more alarming for Moore because it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out "n
brown" on the tag...
Moore, who is black, said Kingsoft's acknowledgment of a mistake doesn't make her feel better...
Moore is consulting with a lawyer and wants compensation. Last week, she filed a report with the Ontario Human Rights Commission."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070419/ap_on_re_ca/canada_couch_racial_slur;_ylt=AvWmcKPRMnUCHwPic4InyfjMWM0F
You must have missed the link I posted
Dr. Leroi says exactly that, but if you look for correlations then distinct racial groups appear. In paprticular, people of mixed race are interesting because they have bits of both.
But looking at an individual gene, everyone can be as different as the next person.
Without wishing to sidetrack the debate, what the fuck does she need compensation for ?
Perhaps she wants to buy a new sofa with it?
For as long as racism and racists are about (and sadly they are aplenty) the term racism is very meaningful indeed.
Well, anyone who thinks that race exists is by today's usage of the term a "racist." However, racist is also used to mean someone who is a criminal; someone who wants to exterminate all people who do not fit the term "white." Obviously, homicidal maniac and thinking that race actually exists is not the same thing. Unfortunately, that is the common usage. Hence, the term has been so abused and misused as to be utterly useless and entirely without any merit, whatsoever.
The idea that the term is 'useless' is very strange, especially, I would imagine, for the many millions who still experience racism.
Thinking that race exsists is obviously not racist. Otherwise this entire debate wouldn't even be here.
Not at all, it's just there's been many bad experiences in the past with users that have joined and only engaged with debates on race. As a result it seems justified to clarify the position you're taking and the points you are making.
In what way?
What's your point?
What on earth are you on about? Has anyone been called racist on this thread?
What are you on about?
I never said that race, gender or mass murder didn't exist.
Obviously, I could not tell the difference between a light skinned and dark skinned black american if I refused to let my eyes "discriminate" or "compare and contrast" the difference in their skin color. But as I've already asserted, this isn't about trite little things like skin color, this is about mass extermination of colored people. This is about Jews in Nazi ovens, Black Americans hanging from Southern ropes, Homosexual Americans being wrapped in barbed wire and left to die, little old Indian ladies being forced to march until they died and battered women bleeding to death, in a lonely puddle of tears, in their very own bathroom, while her executioner husband cracks a beer and kicks back on his lazy boy to watch football. This is about the cold, calculated and callous Mass Murder of Innocent Human Beings, not the sport shooting of "sub-humans." I do not believe there is such a thing as a "sub-human."
Of course, this begs the question: is it RATIONAL to be afraid of all these things? Remember the lady with the couch in the Yahoo article. She believes (I can't read her mind, but for all I know, she is sincere) that the "n word" constitutes such a real and bona-fide threat to her, her children and others (of her race or whatever label you want to give it) that she is entitled to a cash award and more importantly, that the people who committed this act need to be punished where it will hurt them the most, in their pocketbooks. Moreover, she believes that this really is a human rights issue that the government needs to protect her, her family and other members of "her group" from. (Some people don't believe that groups exist, but I think she does).
Finally, I think it is irrational for you to be afraid of me, because my posts have generally been civil.
Blagsta,
You seem to be sincerely confused. I have sympathy for you, because I have felt confused at times myself and found that the condition elicited fear, shame and guilt. I hope you know how to "cope" with those feelings.
Barkmoss
I was momentarily frightened by the voracity of your response, felt ashamed, because you tricked me and felt guilty for "stepping in it." Fortunately, I know how to cope with those feelings. Furthermore, I don't envy the load of guilt and shame you heap upon yourself and the fear you generate in others of yourself. I like people to trust me.
You're American? how the hell are we supposed to know?
Apart from the huge chip on your shoulder, that is.
Please explain this comment.
Why has the term "racist" become meaningless?
I feel badgered by your posts; is that how you want me to feel?
Barkmoss
Though as I said, I'd already answered definitively the thread, saying Dr. Leroi at Imperial College London has expanded on the research of others showing that genetic correlations can be used to define different races, from 5 major groups (Europe, America, Africa, East Asia and Australasia) right down to different parts of the same country. heh
No, this is badgering.
I knew what that was gonna be before I clicked it lol
I compliment you on your civility; it is a virtuous and all to often rare quality. Kudos to you.
While the Doctor may be correct, this information produces a great deal of fear and while that fear may be irrational, it is still very real. We should never forget that this kind of irrational fear can produce a tremendous amount of misery and evil.
Incidentally, most of this is new to me; the idea that the woman in the Yahoo article was suffering from an irrational fear of white men/women/chinese people is a new conclusion for me. I'd always thought people like that were just "gold-diggers." So, while it may only be 51% on topic, it is still relevant. Of course, everyone will not appreciate that. Although, I'm sure you can.
When little badgers grow up they become:
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/badgers2/