But Glenn, no one -- quite literally -- is saying, "Call the whole thing off" (re: Race). No one is saying, "close the door on the idea of race, always and forever." No one out here is "devoting themselves to the project of, let's get rid of race." These are chimeric monsters you envision....and the horrific things you imagine they would do are, indeed, imaginary.
You say, pointing to your skin, "This is superficial. I understand that this is superficial." And you are right. But you are equally right when you note that "Foundational history, culture, and lived experience have been grounded on this"... superficial thing. Of course they have.
This is not news.
History is filled to overflowing with examples of countless lived experiences, cultural events, battles, massacres, and the destruction (or elevation) of entire nations which have been grounded on any number of entirely superficial things. Except, of course, these countless superficialities did not seem so superficial at the time.
Imagine the casual, never-go-to-temple, entirely 'superficial' Jew, living in Berlin, in the 30's. I'm sure, for a while there he thought, 'They -- the Nazi's -- can't be serious. I barely even consider myself Jewish. I married a Protestant. I raised my kids Protestant. Judaism doesn't matter to me. Surely my entirely negligible 'Jewishness' will not matter if there are Pogroms?!" He was wrong, of course.
So yes, skin color is a superficiality. And yes, superficialities have -- historically -- triggered, caused, shaped a universe of experiences, good & bad. No one would deny that; no one should deny either.
But -- and of course there's a 'but' -- given the superficiality of skin tone (a superficiality we all agree upon), the way to begin to reduce it to its essential triviality is to, as John Roberts might say, reduce it! But reducing it, recognizing the superficiality of it//// that's not saying we seek to eliminate race or refuse to recognize the role its historically played for both the world, and for us as individuals. It's saying we don't want it to play that role NOW, today...going forward. We don't want it to be a part of admissions decisions. We don't want it to be a part of house buying decisions or car selling decisions or salary decisions or promotion decisions.
In truth we really don't want it to be a reason -- as superficial as it truly is -- to do much of anything.
But Glenn, no one -- quite literally -- is saying, "Call the whole thing off" (re: Race). No one is saying, "close the door on the idea of race, always and forever." No one out here is "devoting themselves to the project of, let's get rid of race." These are chimeric monsters you envision....and the horrific things you imagine they would do are, indeed, imaginary.
You say, pointing to your skin, "This is superficial. I understand that this is superficial." And you are right. But you are equally right when you note that "Foundational history, culture, and lived experience have been grounded on this"... superficial thing. Of course they have.
This is not news.
History is filled to overflowing with examples of countless lived experiences, cultural events, battles, massacres, and the destruction (or elevation) of entire nations which have been grounded on any number of entirely superficial things. Except, of course, these countless superficialities did not seem so superficial at the time.
Imagine the casual, never-go-to-temple, entirely 'superficial' Jew, living in Berlin, in the 30's. I'm sure, for a while there he thought, 'They -- the Nazi's -- can't be serious. I barely even consider myself Jewish. I married a Protestant. I raised my kids Protestant. Judaism doesn't matter to me. Surely my entirely negligible 'Jewishness' will not matter if there are Pogroms?!" He was wrong, of course.
So yes, skin color is a superficiality. And yes, superficialities have -- historically -- triggered, caused, shaped a universe of experiences, good & bad. No one would deny that; no one should deny either.
But -- and of course there's a 'but' -- given the superficiality of skin tone (a superficiality we all agree upon), the way to begin to reduce it to its essential triviality is to, as John Roberts might say, reduce it! But reducing it, recognizing the superficiality of it//// that's not saying we seek to eliminate race or refuse to recognize the role its historically played for both the world, and for us as individuals. It's saying we don't want it to play that role NOW, today...going forward. We don't want it to be a part of admissions decisions. We don't want it to be a part of house buying decisions or car selling decisions or salary decisions or promotion decisions.
In truth we really don't want it to be a reason -- as superficial as it truly is -- to do much of anything.