Head over to Mixed Race America, where Jennifer asks the provocative question, "What is race?"
I was about to dash off an answer to her query, when I realized that I don't have one--at least not an easy one. My first inclination was to say that race is the intersection of skin color (or biology) and culture. But what of the child adopted from China and raised by white parents in a small Nebraska town. Is that child, raised outside of her native culture, no longer Chinese? I've been told too many times that my suburban upbringing is contrary to black culture and I loathe that idea. So, maybe culture has nothing to do with race.
Then I was tempted to say that race is just a social fiction woven around skin color. Barack Obama, though biracial, is black because he "looks black" to Americans (and because he identifies as such). The "whiter" biracial Mariah Carey was viewed differently before she started hanging with the R&B/Hip Hop crowd. But then a commenter, CVT, eloquently pointed out how being biracial defines her, and I realized that being a black woman defines me. I cannot separate my blackness from who I am because it affects the life I live, mostly because of how my blackness affects how people react to me. So, does race = biology + social experience? I'm not sure. Between home and work I'm sure I'll think of a reason that this is wrong, too.
I would love to hear your thoughts on my view of race, but be sure to visit Mixed Race America and share your definition of race with the folks there.
5 comments:
Wiki says of an epicanthal fold, epicanthic fold, or epicanthus: ...a skin fold of the upper eyelid (from the nose to the inner side of the eyebrow) covering the inner corner (medial canthus) of the human eye. The epicanthal fold is present in people of East Asia and Southeast Asian descent, as well as other ethnic groups including some Native Americans and Africans. Epicanthal folds may also be seen in young children of any race before the bridge of the nose begins to elevate.
A pathological aspect is also mentioned: In many caucasian backgrounds and other groups who don't commonly possess the trait, the presence of the epicanthal fold can be a symptom of fetal alcohol syndrome, chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome, Cri du Chat syndrome, or pre-term birth.
So, race. Obviously there are physiologically distinct groupings of humans who differ markedly from all other discrete groupings. How the anthropologist fits these groupings into standard taxonomies is what it is. Pseudo-science? Maybe. Most definitions (as variously) offered by other posters seem valid to me.
Many a person in America, of identifiable African descent, is nonetheless "mixed" and what of the the so-called mulatto, quadroon, octoroon set of blacks whose off-spring, having married white, now look like Casper the Ghost?
My mixed race daughter, black/East Asian, now age 29, has been questioned most of her life. A playmate once asked her, "Is you a China?" Then, "Is you proud of being black?" My baby replied, "Do you mean, is I'm proud of being half black?" No doubt her answer presaged her becoming the lawyer she is today. Now she's asked if she's Hawaiian, Filipino, Jamaican/Chinese, what have you. Told she looks just like Kimora Lee Simmons, which she doesn't take as a complement. She self-identifies as black, when with myself and my family, and in the community in which she, with her Ethiopian brownstone mate, chooses to live, though she can afford to live elsewhere, chock-a-block with black Americans, Continental Africans, West Indian blacks, black Latinos -the Diaspora, and Asian when with her mother, her grandmother (I keep a desk photo of my ex, our daughter, and the mother-in-law, all arm-in-arm. Looks like three generations of the same woman to me) and her Korean cousins. At the same time, my daughter looks more like My mother, butter-bright complexion, high cheek bones, Asian eyes, than any of the granddaughters in our family.
Race? You say what?
Tami,
I went to the blog you linked to. I read the post and comments and I don't know if there is an answer to the question.
What is race? I think it's so hard to answer because race only really means anything when we are reacting to it.
Example; a racist incident or racial descrimination.
Otherwise it's just a concept.
I believe that race can be likened to colors, fabrics, shoes, flowers and any other noun you can conceive. Someone decided to classify humans based upon their/our physiology as they have for the aforementioned. I think it gave them some sense of order and for others, a way to exercise power and control. They invented ----- This ‘group’ of people has these physical and mental traits so they are this and these groups of people have those traits, so they are that.’ Race is just a word at the end of the day, a word use to classify human beings based upon whatever similar characteristics one decides to use. The word race can easily be supplemented with the word ‘group’ and you can conclude the same things. Unfortunately people conclude “the idea that there are correlations between outward physiognomy and mental capacity.” ---black angry woman, nice white woman, etc…
Lastly, I think we all strive to be so different (for whatever reason, usually personal) until we eventually shun some parts of reality and create our own hierarchy /classism /racism, etc. within the dominant culture or society that does a good job of it already. We perpetuate it in so many ways and don't even realize it.
The reality is that the African physiology IS different from the Anglo, or the Asian. The reality is that if you mix the blood lines of any being, dog, cat or human you will create a new breed, (which someone will ultimately give a name and place in a ‘suitable’ category). I don’t think it is as complicated as it may appear. It can almost be simply stated ‘please don’t identify me as _Fill in the blank; I am capable of doing that myself.’
I think when a person has a good handle on who they are as an individual, what others think of them really doesn’t affect them at all. Unfortunately, for a lot of minorities (there’s a group word again) we have accepted other people (white’s) definition of us and now stuggle with the most simple things, such as hair, weight, education and whatever eles that is used to divided us all.
But to what end do we parse the defination of race? It's like that Bill Cosby laugh gag, "Why is there air?"
Obama's candidacy has coused me and so many others to look more closely and the significance and insignificance of race. It is only a color but so much more...
http://freshperspectives1.blogspot.com/
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