African Americans, Police, and several other things tied into this.

[marooned]

If you want to get scientific about it, race doesn't actually exist. I'm tired of there being a division based on skin color.

unfortunately, ethnicity does exist. i don't think it's easy to get rid of the division for the very cultural reasons that create it in the first place. people identify with their ethnicity often, for better or worse. it's hard to shake or just wipe the slate clean when culture or social group ends up tying into a person's sense of their own identity. that there are patterns in culture/ethnicity makes it even more difficult because people will misattribute them as fixed properties.

also the documentary i watched, everyone in that neighborhood was black for the most part. black doesn't simply mean a certain set of patterns in physical features. the people identify themselves as this. but what's more important is the ethnicity and the history of passing culture over the course of generations... which is rooted in the conception of race all the way back to slavery. thus you kind of have to consider it when considering the problem.

like if my great great great grandmother was denied access to knowledge, born a slave, and lived in poverty after the civil war ended (just expected to magically know how to integrate with society); and maybe her kids learned a little bit more than she did, but still were largely ignorant and living in poverty... imagining what is passed from generation to generation, landing with me living in the projects... it's these subtle things in the worldview that end up impacting people more... now you have more access to knowledge, you are literate... but you are still trapped by an disempowering worldview that gets passed on and elaborated upon per generation. one based on being a slave in origin.

i guess as an example, alcoholism gets passed generationally in both sides of my family. it's not simply people drinking, it's a sort of cluster of behavioral traits that can appear in children of alcoholics that they then unwittingly pass to their own children without trying to, even if they themselves are not alcoholics. the pattern of traits can then make it easier for someone down the line to develop alcoholism. (there's probably some genetic thing too though maybe in this case.)

[Beautiful sky]

unfortunately, ethnicity does exist. i don't think it's easy to get rid of the division for the very cultural reasons that create it in the first place. people identify with their ethnicity often, for better or worse. it's hard to shake or just wipe the slate clean when culture or social group ends up tying into a person's sense of their own identity. that there are patterns in culture/ethnicity makes it even more difficult because people will misattribute them as fixed properties.

Because we are taught to identify with it in direct or indirect ways. Direct is by asking where you were born and indirect by someone in the family bragging about how superior they are vrs how "low" others are creating division and differentiation

[marooned]

Because we are taught to identify with it in direct or indirect ways. Direct is by asking where you were born and indirect by someone in the family bragging about how superior they are vrs how "low" others are creating division and differentiation

but i think maybe people always did this... people ask where someone came from as part of trying to understand who they are. and people are kind of tribal in inclination and would naturally want to be all "my tribe or group is better than yours."

anyway i don't really know the answer... the construction of race needs to be phased out and untangled from ethnicity. but in trying to address the social problems the construction of race created for people, it keeps being put in the spotlight as actually important (as though you are a race as an independent property). it thus can re-create itself like a nasty cancer. and you can't just withdraw everything and be all "race doesn't matter" because some people are actually at a disadvantage because of the history of racism and how it has affected them and those before them. not to mention how they are experiencing racism in their current every day lives. and it invalidates them to just be all, "you aren't a race, you're an equal person" when they are painfully aware of how "race" affects them.

eta: lamely i kind of suspect it will largely work itself out. all of these discussions are like a massive trying to work out the poison often; and although there's a lot of new poison being created, i feel like the overall trend is trying to "fix it" in an organic way even if we don't know specifically how to.

eta2: i think it would help more to generalize less though. i mean i do agree that "black people" or "white people" are generalizations in all cases, and meaningless terms when you attempt to break them down. but there *are* problems related to "race" is the issue, and if one doesn't talk about them at all, they're not just going to go away because of it.