polite_gandalf wrote on Jan 2
nd, 2017 at 2:19pm:
Frank wrote on Jan 2
nd, 2017 at 1:51pm:
Race and class are like beauty - you know it when you see it.
I think thats the problem Frank - people "see" race, as in outward superficial physical features like black skin or slanty eyes - but it is in fact a categorisation that is completely arbitrary. There is actually more genetic variation within these "groups" than between them and other groups.
And then you know you're really in trouble when you get people like FD throwing in their ignorant stereotypes about the 'other' into the mix - boldly declaring somewhere as vast and genetically diverse as Asia to be reduced to the one "Asian race".
Come to think of it, it seems to me that its people insisting that humans can be categorised into "races" (whatever that means, no one wants to explain it) that is half the problem. Because its little more than a demonstration of chauvinistic ignorance based on fear and prejudice.
How do you tell who can use Aboriginal-only computer labs?
I think your whole 'racism is meaningless' argument is totally flawed because it goes too far (something social justice warriors do routinely).
Race is a cultural attribute that nevertheless maps onto physiognomy that is readily recognised by everyone. Blacks, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, whites recognise themselves and each other as such. Yes, there is further cultural difference within races, even countries speaking the same language (Greek-stock Sicilians versus Norman-stock).
Everyone recognises that Blacks are Africans somewhere down the track, whites are Europeans, chinky-poos are East Asians and so on. Some people like other races and their cultures, others don't. People of the same race an culture stick together because they can read and understand each other in a way they can't read and understand alien races and cultures. It's not meaningless - everyone can see that it does play a role in everyone's lives.
If there was anything worth being pragmatic about, race is it. Denying its very real function in everyone's lives is just going way too far.
As far as Muslims are concerned, they are still overwhelmingly Arab/North African, Sub-continental and South-East Asians. Not a lot of Japanese or Korean Muslim, and still not a lot of white Muslims, you included.
I am pretty sure you relate somewhat differently to white Australian converts like yourself and to, say, recently arrived Saudi Arabs. But don't worry, it's natural. You get the white Australian convert much more than the Arab.
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