This sense of "deracialization" that you propose, while accurate in achieving the ends you seek, namely ending the societal racial divisions, is not "deracialization" at all, but the manufacturing of a novel "race", ie ancestral lineage, that is the product of the long arc of american history. it's sadly an implicit admission that race as defined by continental place of ancestry is too great a divider for certain peoples to fully function together in the same society. there are many people of differing political factions who believe this. indeed there was a dictator of Paraguay in the 19th century who outlawed *intra*-racial marriage to achieve this.
"too great a divider for certain peoples to fully function together in the same society"
Too great a divider for certain peoples or too silly overall?
My preference is that the trend spread worldwide--organically. Because if race doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter; and ultimately I don't know of any other way to prove that it doesn't matter.
Sadly, my "test" often inadvertently reveals how much race matters to a lot of people, including some who claim otherwise.
you are absolutely correct, and your question highlights a great point. whether one feels it's a silly divider or not, it's there. and we can't compel people not to care.
There have been isolated cases of societies breaking racial divides and intermarrying en masse, forming new ethnicities founded on the meeting of distant peoples. Cabo Verde is mainly a mixed-race society, and generational Caymanians are as well are primarily mixed-race. so what you propose is obviously possible as it has occurred. But the speakers bring up a good point as well, that there may well be a cultural inheritance (which does in fact matter to some) that is contingent on race. I recall Muhammad Ali saying that he wanted a Black American woman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqiWFLsgVi4 not a Black Muslim african woman. We may well not be able to simply operate under an ideological illusion that we're all interchangeable even though we acknowledge the humanity of every individual
I readily concede that my vision can't just happen, as it were, for the modern world has certainly bought into the concept of race to the point where many people--too many, in my view--equate or at least approximate race with culture, something we all take seriously on some level.
I continue to see this as a profound mistake the world bought into 500 or so years ago. Having said that, I can hardly deny what you're calling attention to. Glenn is perhaps a quintessential example. Clearly he does not have a *twisted* view of race, but it obviously holds some importance to him based on culturally related issues. But I just cannot go there =)
More importantly, quite frankly, my vision/hope at this point strikes me as almost inevitable. As the world grows smaller and our ability to reach out and touch one another continues to expand, we might as well get ready if you ask me.
This sense of "deracialization" that you propose, while accurate in achieving the ends you seek, namely ending the societal racial divisions, is not "deracialization" at all, but the manufacturing of a novel "race", ie ancestral lineage, that is the product of the long arc of american history. it's sadly an implicit admission that race as defined by continental place of ancestry is too great a divider for certain peoples to fully function together in the same society. there are many people of differing political factions who believe this. indeed there was a dictator of Paraguay in the 19th century who outlawed *intra*-racial marriage to achieve this.
"too great a divider for certain peoples to fully function together in the same society"
Too great a divider for certain peoples or too silly overall?
My preference is that the trend spread worldwide--organically. Because if race doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter; and ultimately I don't know of any other way to prove that it doesn't matter.
Sadly, my "test" often inadvertently reveals how much race matters to a lot of people, including some who claim otherwise.
you are absolutely correct, and your question highlights a great point. whether one feels it's a silly divider or not, it's there. and we can't compel people not to care.
There have been isolated cases of societies breaking racial divides and intermarrying en masse, forming new ethnicities founded on the meeting of distant peoples. Cabo Verde is mainly a mixed-race society, and generational Caymanians are as well are primarily mixed-race. so what you propose is obviously possible as it has occurred. But the speakers bring up a good point as well, that there may well be a cultural inheritance (which does in fact matter to some) that is contingent on race. I recall Muhammad Ali saying that he wanted a Black American woman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqiWFLsgVi4 not a Black Muslim african woman. We may well not be able to simply operate under an ideological illusion that we're all interchangeable even though we acknowledge the humanity of every individual
I readily concede that my vision can't just happen, as it were, for the modern world has certainly bought into the concept of race to the point where many people--too many, in my view--equate or at least approximate race with culture, something we all take seriously on some level.
I continue to see this as a profound mistake the world bought into 500 or so years ago. Having said that, I can hardly deny what you're calling attention to. Glenn is perhaps a quintessential example. Clearly he does not have a *twisted* view of race, but it obviously holds some importance to him based on culturally related issues. But I just cannot go there =)
More importantly, quite frankly, my vision/hope at this point strikes me as almost inevitable. As the world grows smaller and our ability to reach out and touch one another continues to expand, we might as well get ready if you ask me.
Good chat.
Yes thank you interesting thoughts