Thanks for the reply, Steve. I agree with everything you say except the claim that it’s skin color and skin color alone that we use to classify people into races. We also use eye shape, facial features, and hair texture as clues to try to guess what a persons genetic roots are. The reason we put a Jamaican (presumably a descendant of sla…
Thanks for the reply, Steve. I agree with everything you say except the claim that it’s skin color and skin color alone that we use to classify people into races. We also use eye shape, facial features, and hair texture as clues to try to guess what a persons genetic roots are. The reason we put a Jamaican (presumably a descendant of slaves there), Zimbabwean, and Sierra Leone-ian(?) in the same bucket is they all can trace their ancestry to sub-Saharan Africa. Yet people from Ethiopia do tend to have lighter shades of skin than those from Kenya, just like some people from India have much darker skin than people from Japan despite our silly, shared racial categorization of “Asian”. (“Hispanic” is technically considered an ethnicity, not a race, by the US Government, which makes a smidge of sense as Spaniards are extremely similar to French and Italians, genetically speaking. But most people we think of as “Hispanic” are a genetic mix of Spanish or Portuguese colonizers and Indigenous populations in Central and South America. Again, silliness!!!!!) Anyway long story short, I still think skin color is one of the biggest clues we use to racialize someone else, but it’s not the only one, because we’re attempting to bucketize their genetic (and cultural) roots, not their shade of brown.
"I agree with everything you say except the claim that it’s skin color and skin color alone that we use to classify people into races. "
I didn't quite say that though. I said it's judged "almost entirely" on the colour of a person's skin. Which is true. Case in point, there is enormous diversity in eye shape amongst people we'd all label "white." We just don't really notice it because the "primary" differentiator of skin is similar enough.
Look at Steve Buscemi's eyes vs Benedict Cumberbatch's vs Matthew Mcconaughey's. Do we differentiate between them racially? Nope. In the overwhelming majority of cases we don't. Secondary characteristics like eye shape might be used on the rare occasions where skin colour isn't definitive (hair texture only in the case of black people really, you could shave everybody bald and it wouldn't make a difference to their "racial" categorisation). But again, I think you're significantly overestimating the nuance with which most people think about race.
And further, bucketising (great word) all people from sub-saharan Africa makes no more sense than bucketising Russians and Chinese people together. Or even Mongolians and Chinese people. I chose those countries in Africa because they're separated by enormous distances. Yet people still think that one "race" covers them all.
The primary thing those people have in common is ancestry from a part of the world hot enough that darker skin was evolutionarily advantageous. As you say, there is variation here too, because the amount of melanin required for the conditions varied. But if what you say about secondary characteristics were true, nobody would think I was the same "race" as somebody from Kenya. Or Uganda. Because our facial features are actually quite different. Same, as you say, for Asians. Although even the differences between Filipinos and Koreans, for example, are significant.
The frequency of the "Where are you from" that Asians get casts a bit of tension on skin color differentiation. My fairest skinned daughter got more of that than the darker one because momma's eyes are more pronounced with her.
More often hypersexualized as "exotic" than the black women shaking their ass on tic-Tok, you might be underestimating the influence of eye shape. And it can be a curse as many Asian women will testify.
"The frequency of the "Where are you from" that Asians get casts a bit of tension on skin color differentiation."
Yeah, but I think they're asking about national origin here. Not whether somebody is of the "Asian" race. I get asked where I'm from quite often too. But I don't think it's because they're wondering if I'm black.
Mixed "race" people are, I hope, the ultimate end to all this stupidity. Once we're all mixed together enough that we're really forced to grapple with the fact that nobody is simply "white" or "black" anymore, because we're obviously a mixture of all of them, maybe (hopefully) the whole concept just fades away.
Many of us are mixtures already of course. But it's not visually obvious enough to make a difference. Genetically, this whole issue has been settled for years.
Yeah, nobody is asking about "Asian race", they've already decided that. "Where are you from?" is the perpetual, "You are a foreigner", even if you are a 3rd generation Americans or longer. When the reply is "Florida" there is an instant "That's not what I meant."
I commented to Chris about other appearance characteristics than skin tone before I saw this. I the case of my wife (dark skinned), that meant less than hair, eyes, cheekbones, etc. in identifying tribal kin.
Thanks for the reply, Steve. I agree with everything you say except the claim that it’s skin color and skin color alone that we use to classify people into races. We also use eye shape, facial features, and hair texture as clues to try to guess what a persons genetic roots are. The reason we put a Jamaican (presumably a descendant of slaves there), Zimbabwean, and Sierra Leone-ian(?) in the same bucket is they all can trace their ancestry to sub-Saharan Africa. Yet people from Ethiopia do tend to have lighter shades of skin than those from Kenya, just like some people from India have much darker skin than people from Japan despite our silly, shared racial categorization of “Asian”. (“Hispanic” is technically considered an ethnicity, not a race, by the US Government, which makes a smidge of sense as Spaniards are extremely similar to French and Italians, genetically speaking. But most people we think of as “Hispanic” are a genetic mix of Spanish or Portuguese colonizers and Indigenous populations in Central and South America. Again, silliness!!!!!) Anyway long story short, I still think skin color is one of the biggest clues we use to racialize someone else, but it’s not the only one, because we’re attempting to bucketize their genetic (and cultural) roots, not their shade of brown.
Adding this, because it’s neat: https://www.grida.no/resources/7125
"I agree with everything you say except the claim that it’s skin color and skin color alone that we use to classify people into races. "
I didn't quite say that though. I said it's judged "almost entirely" on the colour of a person's skin. Which is true. Case in point, there is enormous diversity in eye shape amongst people we'd all label "white." We just don't really notice it because the "primary" differentiator of skin is similar enough.
Look at Steve Buscemi's eyes vs Benedict Cumberbatch's vs Matthew Mcconaughey's. Do we differentiate between them racially? Nope. In the overwhelming majority of cases we don't. Secondary characteristics like eye shape might be used on the rare occasions where skin colour isn't definitive (hair texture only in the case of black people really, you could shave everybody bald and it wouldn't make a difference to their "racial" categorisation). But again, I think you're significantly overestimating the nuance with which most people think about race.
And further, bucketising (great word) all people from sub-saharan Africa makes no more sense than bucketising Russians and Chinese people together. Or even Mongolians and Chinese people. I chose those countries in Africa because they're separated by enormous distances. Yet people still think that one "race" covers them all.
The primary thing those people have in common is ancestry from a part of the world hot enough that darker skin was evolutionarily advantageous. As you say, there is variation here too, because the amount of melanin required for the conditions varied. But if what you say about secondary characteristics were true, nobody would think I was the same "race" as somebody from Kenya. Or Uganda. Because our facial features are actually quite different. Same, as you say, for Asians. Although even the differences between Filipinos and Koreans, for example, are significant.
The frequency of the "Where are you from" that Asians get casts a bit of tension on skin color differentiation. My fairest skinned daughter got more of that than the darker one because momma's eyes are more pronounced with her.
More often hypersexualized as "exotic" than the black women shaking their ass on tic-Tok, you might be underestimating the influence of eye shape. And it can be a curse as many Asian women will testify.
"The frequency of the "Where are you from" that Asians get casts a bit of tension on skin color differentiation."
Yeah, but I think they're asking about national origin here. Not whether somebody is of the "Asian" race. I get asked where I'm from quite often too. But I don't think it's because they're wondering if I'm black.
Mixed "race" people are, I hope, the ultimate end to all this stupidity. Once we're all mixed together enough that we're really forced to grapple with the fact that nobody is simply "white" or "black" anymore, because we're obviously a mixture of all of them, maybe (hopefully) the whole concept just fades away.
Many of us are mixtures already of course. But it's not visually obvious enough to make a difference. Genetically, this whole issue has been settled for years.
"𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 "𝘈𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯" 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦."
Yeah, nobody is asking about "Asian race", they've already decided that. "Where are you from?" is the perpetual, "You are a foreigner", even if you are a 3rd generation Americans or longer. When the reply is "Florida" there is an instant "That's not what I meant."
I commented to Chris about other appearance characteristics than skin tone before I saw this. I the case of my wife (dark skinned), that meant less than hair, eyes, cheekbones, etc. in identifying tribal kin.