Madeline
Rookie
- Banned
- #1
Scientists have been in agreement for some time now that racial identity is illusory. If you had your entire geonome mapped, an ancestral analysis could determine whether a percent of your ancestors hailed from Asia or Europe or Africa, but beyond that, there is no scientific basis for the notion of racial identity..it is a social construct based on how we perceive ourselves and others, and the families of origin.
Race has always been an odd feature of American life. The concept of a "caucasian race" did not exist prior to 1775. The term was coined by scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. His studies based the classification of the Caucasian race primarily on skull features, which Blumenbach claimed were optimized by the inhabitants of Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains.
Interestingly, although used today in popular North American English to describe white people or people of European origin, the original description of the Caucasian race was of a people of light to brown skin pigmentation and straight to wavy or curly hair.
The legal use of racial identity is apparent in the US Constitution, immigration laws, Jim Crow laws,etc. and can still be seen today in such things as set-asides for minority-owned businesses...and yet, there is no scientific basis for the concept, nor any reliable way to segment the population into groups. Legally, your race is whatever you perceive it to be, in good faith.
The concept of who is white has always been especially fluid. Under the "one drop rule", anyone who had a parent or grandparent (or other ancestor) who was not viewed as white was not white themselves. There have been changes over time in the treatment of "Arabians" as whites, as well as Italians, Greeks, and other Eastern Europeans. There has never been much agreement about the whiteness or not of anyone from Spain or any Latino country with Spanish ancestors.
Even among those viewed as white, some versions of whiteness was considered more desirable by (?) some people...blue eyes and blonde hair, or a lack of any accent, or whatever. Beginning with the Reconstruction Era, the Southern whites viewed the greatest threat to their whiteness and social supremacy as other, Northern whites...not local African-Americans.
This generation will live to see "Hispanics" (a grouping that Latinos themselves do not feel) become a majority, overtaking "non-Hispanic whites". If the concept/self-identification of people as white disappears or changes significantly, will the role of racism itself diminish?
Race has always been an odd feature of American life. The concept of a "caucasian race" did not exist prior to 1775. The term was coined by scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. His studies based the classification of the Caucasian race primarily on skull features, which Blumenbach claimed were optimized by the inhabitants of Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains.
Interestingly, although used today in popular North American English to describe white people or people of European origin, the original description of the Caucasian race was of a people of light to brown skin pigmentation and straight to wavy or curly hair.
The legal use of racial identity is apparent in the US Constitution, immigration laws, Jim Crow laws,etc. and can still be seen today in such things as set-asides for minority-owned businesses...and yet, there is no scientific basis for the concept, nor any reliable way to segment the population into groups. Legally, your race is whatever you perceive it to be, in good faith.
The concept of who is white has always been especially fluid. Under the "one drop rule", anyone who had a parent or grandparent (or other ancestor) who was not viewed as white was not white themselves. There have been changes over time in the treatment of "Arabians" as whites, as well as Italians, Greeks, and other Eastern Europeans. There has never been much agreement about the whiteness or not of anyone from Spain or any Latino country with Spanish ancestors.
Even among those viewed as white, some versions of whiteness was considered more desirable by (?) some people...blue eyes and blonde hair, or a lack of any accent, or whatever. Beginning with the Reconstruction Era, the Southern whites viewed the greatest threat to their whiteness and social supremacy as other, Northern whites...not local African-Americans.
This generation will live to see "Hispanics" (a grouping that Latinos themselves do not feel) become a majority, overtaking "non-Hispanic whites". If the concept/self-identification of people as white disappears or changes significantly, will the role of racism itself diminish?
