redhen, on 08 December 2012 - 11:18 AM, said:
By Acts of Parliament and Acts of Congress. In the U.S.A. you need to prove a 50% "blood quantum" to establish Native ancestry, in Canada it's 25%. Again, skin colour has nothing to do with.
You don't fight racism by denying the existence of race.
Yes, it's a tragedy that so many illegal immigrants are desperate to flee from their dysfunctional countries to the U.S.A. such that it endangers their children and undermines their future. This is indeed a social issue, it is however not a philosophical or psychological debate. I maintain that this thread is in the wrong forum.
Hum I thought questions of logic were philosophical in nature? And if a child is 3/4 White and 1/4 Black, what is the logic of determining the child's race is Black. The formula for determining if a child is a native American is better than that.
How well diverse people get along is sociology, politics, philosophical and psychological isn't it? How does it feel to be Black living under White domination, and what of the morals of this domination? How we justify these things is not pure science. And the discrimination is not one sided. I attended a meeting of Black people with another White friend, and I assure you, no one in the room accepted as Black people, as they discussed things like how to announce a celebration with free food, without attracting White people. How to increase the number of Black bankers who would favor loans for Black people. I was blown away by the prejudice and discrimination in that room, and being told a park where I rarely see a Black person and has a cabin of the first White man who settled here, is the Black people's park. Really, when did that happen? This was going on at school that announced this to be a zone free of discrimination. What I am questioning is not if the dark shinned people in my family will reject their whiteness, but how are we going to get along a society that is deeply troubled by racism. I have had to deal with the hatred of Black and do not live in denial of it, and am aware of the prejudice that has caused this problem. How do we united diverse people and live in harmony?
What is that makes a person one of us? If this is the only culture a person has known, might this make the person one of us? If we can not see this with Mexicans, how about Africans? How well would a person of African decent who grew up in the US, do in the African country of his parents?
Humans become what they learn to become, and when someone learns to be one of us, I say this person is one of us. The other side of this, my son married a woman with 4 children. I began by treating them just like my other grandchildren, but they are not like my other grandchildren, and they accept me as my son's mother, but not as a grandmother they are bonded with. They are different in ways, I do not feel comfortable with them. However, my son had a daughter with this woman, and I care for her one or two days a week, and we are bonded. I really think this discussion needs to be a broad one, questioning human nature and morals and even social expectations. Even when we are all White or are all Black, there is diversity and questions of how we come to feel comfortable with each other and live in harmony.
Yes, you do fight racism by denying race. We are suppose to live in a democracy, and the best way to fight racism is to teach for democracy.
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"Democracy is a way of life and social organization which above all others is sensitive to the dignity and worth of the individual human personality, affirming the fundamental moral and political equality of all men and recognizing no barriers of race, religion, or circumstance." General Report of the Seminar on "What is Democracy" Congress on Education for Democracy, August 1939
This comes from the Democracy Series text books, and it was education like this, that was dominate as we mobilized for the second war against NAZI Germany. This education lead Black people to expect a very different reality when they signed up to fight in the second world war. It goes with what political leaders were saying this time.
"If we want freedom we must extend it to everyone, whether rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin." Wendell Willkie said in the late 1930 tys. You see, as the world began aware of the racism in Germany and the direction that nation was going, we had political leaders and education speaking out against racism, as part of the mobilization for war. This ended the passive Black response to segregation and discrimination. This is logic, it is a philosophy, a culture, politics. Just as slavery is about logic, philosophy, culture and politics.
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— adj 1. relating to or characteristic of a human group having racial, religious, linguistic, and certain other traits in common 2. relating to the classification of mankind into groups, esp on the basis of racial characteristics 3. denoting or deriving from the cultural traditions of a group of people: the ethnic dances of Slovakia 4. characteristic of another culture: the ethnic look ; ethnic food — n 5. chiefly ( US ), ( Austral ) a member of an ethnic group, esp a minority group [C14 (in the senses: heathen, Gentile): from Late Latin ethnicus, from Greek ethnikos, from ethnos race] usage Referring to a person as an ethnic is broadly acceptable in the US, Australia and Canada, but could well cause offence in the UK and elsewhere 
