« If life were magic: | Main | Chessboxing »
December 01, 2005
Blog against Racism
“What’s your ancestry? What’s your background, what are you?” This sort of question gets asked as a normal part of the getting to know you phase of many friendships. I’m never sure how to react. My ancestors are from many parts of Europe, mostly Italy (sorry dad) Sicily and Germany. But I’ve never felt the urge to have efficient sex or dominate the world, so obviously knowing about my German grandparent’s isn’t going to do anything. I don’t know any Italian stereotypes, so perhaps I fit those. What I do know is that I value justice; I tell people that my ancestral homeland is San Francisco...
I am what is known as “mixed race”, Italian and German. And a bit of other European things. I know, I know, that all falls under “White”, which is it’s own “race”. Ha! Ask the NAZIs if their Italian allies were the same race! And it’s not as if Mussolini didn’t make grandiose speeches about the “Italian” race. But to the KKK I’m a part of the “white” race, and that seems like a good enough definition for most of America...
Is it not obvious to everyone that “race” is a cultural construct? It has exactly the power and definition we give it. We-- and I include all of humanity—seem fixated on these arbitrary distinctions. We love to create “in” groups and make everyone else outside. It is no accident that the Japanese word Gijin and the Greek word barbarian have the same connotations of ugliness. And they both mean the same thing “those who are not us”...
The question is then: How do we go about constructing a culture which does not notice race? I have no idea. Perhaps we can’t do it; we’re certainly not on a path to do so. I think it will take conscious effort and decades of work. Barring that, if only little green men would be so obliging as to invade...
Posted by Andrew at December 1, 2005 09:49 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.punningpundit.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/849
Comments
I'll be joining the aliens. You know they'll have the bigger guns and the faster net connection.
Posted by: Sean Hackbarth at December 1, 2005 11:49 PM
Treasonous bastard
Posted by: Andrew Cory at December 1, 2005 11:50 PM
I'm with Sean! Though the guns might well be smaller and more powerful...
You'll never stop people from noticing race (or hair-color or eye-color or any other distinguishing characteristics). It's how our minds work. Even to stereotyping (redheads have hot tempers, for example).
Best we can do is teach people to overcome the stereotypes they've learned on an individual basis. And make hateful stereotypes unacceptable.
Posted by: Kathy K at December 4, 2005 08:07 AM
Yeah, but you can't deny the fact that your ancestry has at least SOME impact on your life, unless you just don't know what it is. Most people have some inclination to know where they come from, regardless of whether or not they feel it "means something." The sad fact is, you're going to have a different experience growing up if you're "white" than if you're "black." There are a different set of social expectations placed upon you in each situation.
I agree that it's sad we ask these questions. What nationality, what religion? In some ways it's like asking "Which box do you prefer to be placed in?" The real truth is that it's an easy way for people to define each other, and for some people, a way to judge each other. Sad.
Recently, what my family always thought was German ancestry was discovered to be an incorrect bit of record keeping. Was actually Scottish. Funny how fast my Dad ran out to buy a kilt.
Posted by: StarFiend at December 7, 2005 08:08 AM
I'm reminded of the wonderful A.C. Clarke short story about highly advanced aliens who arrive and reveal that they're actually the descendants of human who fled the Earth thousands of years ago when a terrible plague swept the world. They've stayed away until they could find a cure for the plague, and finally did, and now it's safe for them to return and bring us back up to the level we fell from so long ago, and by the way...
..."if any of you are still white, we can cure you."
Posted by: Dave Trowbridge at December 7, 2005 08:56 PM