15 December 2015

Race does exist

as a psuedoscience

biomes
what influences phenotypic development, how phenotypes develope, the purpose of phenotypes

Melanin is used to protect us from the sun while allowing us to benefit from the sun
The purpose of your phenotype is to give you an advantage to survive the physical environment that your ancestors thrived in.

What's sadly amazing is that some traits that developed due to sun exposure and terrain of ancestors are used to define people.

Our use of race is illogical. We see a trait, color, and notice that it is almost always seen in conjunction with something else, culture. Even though the physical traits actually aren't associated with a culture. So we assume that phenotype determines our culture. When, in fact, it's the environment that determines both phenotype and culture.
phenotype doesn't determine anything about you except your ability to produce Vitamin D. And it is greatly insignificant in the nature of human existence.

Analogous to actual colors. We have RGB Cones. If one told you that the only colors that existed were Red, Green and Blue, I hope you would dismiss this as nonsensical. There are an infinite possibility of colors without a distinguishable boundary between each. Just as there is much more than European, Asian and African.

Categories minimize humanity
I think categories take away from the unique experiences.
Categories breed preconceived notions. Preconceived notions build up false expectations. False expectations affect how you are treated.
If I categorize myself as a nigga, I assign a list of characteristics and definitions to that category. Unfortunately, all others see is the category. They will assign their own definitions and lists of characteristics. That's why black people shouldn't use the word.

Labels and categories have always been used to separate/segregate us.
Some people call race a social construct. I have one deeper
Race, as an economic construct, is a successful tactic better known as 'divide and conquer'

The 'economic  construct' of race was developed so the wealthy could maintain their power and control. That's how the term white and black came about. Rich business owners (plantation owners) used African and European workers. Europeans and Africans banded together against the elite. The elitist learned their lesson and began to tell the European workers that the Africans were beneath them and a threat to them; successfully employing divide and conquer. It's a constant tool of elitist because we always fall for it. If you look throughout history, EVERY time a different nationality migrates to America, Somehow they are a threat to working class Americans. The Italians, the Asians, the Irish, the Jews, the Blacks, etc... and now the Mexicans. It's the same ploy over and over again, because if the workers united (from every nationality) and realized that we were all being disenfranchised, there would be a great rebellion. You know the 10% with the 85%? Well, they'd be ass out.

Race is an economic invention. Racial categories invented by the government. And the government can't even be consistent with it's categorizations.
People are being used. Especially European Americans. Used to divide workers and allow wealth to rise to the top.

We are all unique individuals just like everyone else.
I see beyond race. Which is different than saying I don't see race. I see it.
I'm not saying I'm perfect. Human nature is lazy. We want the most amount of information with little effort. But I realize that first impressions are bullshit. Just ask your ex.

Each individual is a complex mystery; worse yet, an ever-changing mystery. When I see a stranger I have to constantly remind myself that I don't know shit about them. Even if they tell me things about them, it's only what they want me to know, not really who they are. They could be frontin'. They could be having a shitty day.

Categories hinder us from being completely mindful when interacting with other people. Why be mindful when I think I already know what I expect you to be. Seeing your race means I THINK I know about all your daily experiences and I end up sympathizing with this false human being that may be nothing like you.


Race:

each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics: people of all races, colors, and creeds.
Although ideas of race are centuries old, it was not until the 19th century that attempts to systematize racial divisions were made. Ideas of supposed racial superiority and social Darwinism reached their culmination in Nazi ideology of the 1930s and gave pseudoscientific justification to policies and attitudes of discrimination, exploitation, slavery, and extermination. Theories of race asserting a link between racial type and intelligence are now discredited. Scientifically it is accepted as obvious that there are subdivisions of the human species, but it is also clear that genetic variation between individuals of the same race can be as great as that between members of different races.



*Updated from Nov 2009 *updated from Dec 2015?

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