Quote Originally Posted by Maritsa View Post
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.