Thursday, April 21, 2005
Culture: There is Only One Race
There is only one race: the human race. All other concepts of race come from culture, not from science.
Do you disbelieve it? Tell me, what is the scientific division between a person who is "asian" and a person who is "hispanic"? You can fill in any two races you with within the double-quotes and you're going to have equally a difficult time trying to answer the question. Let's take it further. What if a person who is "black" and a person who is "white" have a baby? What race is the baby? Are they a new race? What if a person has all "white" ancestors except for one "black" great-great-great-grandfather? Is that a different race from the person who is "half and half"?
We all rely on our culture to define races for us. In the South, "one drop" of "black" blood was all it took to make you "black." Of course, this betrays the "white verses black" mindset that pervades so many people in the South, but it might as well: that's part of Southern culture (and boy I wish that part of Southern culture would die).
I recently saw this fantastic movie called Europa Europa which tells the true story of a German Jew who joins the Hitler Youth as a means of survival during the Third Reich. There is a very instructive scene in the movie that takes place in a classroom. The teacher, a middle-aged German man, acts sinisterly in front of his attentive Hitler Youth students, intimating th
at Jews are, by nature, hideous and treacherous. Then he calls the protagonist to the front of the class. The protagonaist, still terrified that someone may learn his secret, stands in horror as his teacher begins measuring the dimensions of the protagonist's face. Then, after much measuring and judging, the teacher reveals to the class that the subject is a member of the "Eastern Baltic Race." So much for science!
There is a terrific website that I recently found at zompist.com called How to tell if you're American. It basically makes a bunch of generalized statements about American culture. What made this site interesting is that repres
enatives of other cultures then translated the statements into similiar ones that are relevant in their own culture (in English, thankfully). It's a fascinating view into cultural differences. For example:
American: You like your bacon crisp (unless it's Canadian bacon, of course).
English: You've never come across crispy bacon.
Turkish: You never eat bacon, but you will have kokoreç (fried sheep intestines) after a good night's drinking.
And so on. Fascinating, huh? But, more relevant to this discussion, check out what one of the authors (representing Brazilian culture) had to say about race:
"Between 'black' and 'white' there are many shades of race. Someone who is not very distinctively black looks white to you. You probably think you are white yourself, and it is only when you travel to the U.S. that you find out it is not necessarily so."
The reason why someone from Brazil could think that they were "white" but then learn that they are "black" when they travel to the USA is because race is defined by culture, not by science.
Hence, I reject all cultural definitions of "race." There is one and only one race: the human race. All racist thinking originates in the belief that there are separate races to begin with.
Do you disbelieve it? Tell me, what is the scientific division between a person who is "asian" and a person who is "hispanic"? You can fill in any two races you with within the double-quotes and you're going to have equally a difficult time trying to answer the question. Let's take it further. What if a person who is "black" and a person who is "white" have a baby? What race is the baby? Are they a new race? What if a person has all "white" ancestors except for one "black" great-great-great-grandfather? Is that a different race from the person who is "half and half"?
We all rely on our culture to define races for us. In the South, "one drop" of "black" blood was all it took to make you "black." Of course, this betrays the "white verses black" mindset that pervades so many people in the South, but it might as well: that's part of Southern culture (and boy I wish that part of Southern culture would die).
I recently saw this fantastic movie called Europa Europa which tells the true story of a German Jew who joins the Hitler Youth as a means of survival during the Third Reich. There is a very instructive scene in the movie that takes place in a classroom. The teacher, a middle-aged German man, acts sinisterly in front of his attentive Hitler Youth students, intimating th
at Jews are, by nature, hideous and treacherous. Then he calls the protagonist to the front of the class. The protagonaist, still terrified that someone may learn his secret, stands in horror as his teacher begins measuring the dimensions of the protagonist's face. Then, after much measuring and judging, the teacher reveals to the class that the subject is a member of the "Eastern Baltic Race." So much for science!
There is a terrific website that I recently found at zompist.com called How to tell if you're American. It basically makes a bunch of generalized statements about American culture. What made this site interesting is that repres
enatives of other cultures then translated the statements into similiar ones that are relevant in their own culture (in English, thankfully). It's a fascinating view into cultural differences. For example:
American: You like your bacon crisp (unless it's Canadian bacon, of course).
English: You've never come across crispy bacon.
Turkish: You never eat bacon, but you will have kokoreç (fried sheep intestines) after a good night's drinking.
And so on. Fascinating, huh? But, more relevant to this discussion, check out what one of the authors (representing Brazilian culture) had to say about race:
"Between 'black' and 'white' there are many shades of race. Someone who is not very distinctively black looks white to you. You probably think you are white yourself, and it is only when you travel to the U.S. that you find out it is not necessarily so."
The reason why someone from Brazil could think that they were "white" but then learn that they are "black" when they travel to the USA is because race is defined by culture, not by science.
Hence, I reject all cultural definitions of "race." There is one and only one race: the human race. All racist thinking originates in the belief that there are separate races to begin with.
