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Spirituality is knowing and understanding things around you are more than what you can actually see.

I'm seeing a lot of misunderstandings and crossing of wires between all three of us. As Cynique has pointed out concerning some of my posting, we actually agree on a lot but seem to be emphasizing and exaggerating what we disagree on to the point of erroneous projection. Because I tend to think in a linear fashion, let me state my positions on this matter LINEARLY: 1. Yes RACIAL CLASSIFICATION indeed IS an artificial man-made construct. Infact ALL classifications are man-made artificial constructs because it's used by the human brain to help catagorize things and keep our societies relatively organized. This isn't necessarily a bad thing although it is often USED for bad purposes. Different nations and cultures have different classification systems to describe the physical differences that naturally occur. In English culture ONE DROP of Black blood makes you Black. In Spanish culture ONE DROP of Spaniard blood makes you Spanish regardless as to how dark you are. Which is why you have so many Puerto Ricans and Dominicans who are clearly Black racially speaking but insist they aren't and call themselves "Latino" or "Spanish". The color and races of the people haven't changed, but it's how they're classified that differs. 2. Race itself is NOT a construct but a genetic reality. These two boys clearly have different genes and would be of different races whether we classified them as such or not. Their physical differnces are NATURAL....not ARTIFICIAL or man made. How they are CLASSIFIED is artificial and man made and can fluxuate with time, but the genes that produce them are REAL. 3. There is a difference between RACE and ETHNICITY and that's one of the problems I think YOU Troy are hung up on and it's one of the vortices of your argument. RACE is genetic and it has to do with skin color, hair texture, and facial features....phenotype. ETHNICITY is cultural and it involves language, food, dress, family structure, and other non-physical factors. When you talk about AfroAmericans you're not talking about RACE, we are an ETHNIC GROUP. We come in many different races but the predominate one is BLACK. Some AfroAmericans racially speaking are White and others are Native American and the only thing that make them AfroAmerican are the trace amounts of Black ancestry that barely and sometimes NEVER shows in their physical traits. That's why RACE seems to be so confusion and you refuse to accept it's reality. Because you're looking at it from the U.S. definition and classification which is FLAWED and constantly changes. Look at it from a natural more phenotypical point of view of how people actually LOOK despite what they are called or even choose to call themselves.

Yes I agree, we DO need allies. But the alliance must be MUTUAL and understood. It can't be one sided where everytime Arabs and Latinos face discrimination Blacks come running to their defense, but when WE face discrimination and prejudice they sit back in their enclaves and remain silent or brush it off as just a problem between the Blacks and the Whites and mind their own business. We also need to study the cultures of many of these people and understand how deep racism and colorism exist in their homelands BEFORE then even come to America. Here you are thinking you have another person of color who is an ally against racism and THEY turn out to be even more racist than the White man in America....lol. Like Tariq Nasheed said, it's time for these other immigrant groups and people's of color to "hold their own nuts". Meaning it's time for THEM to stand up and face the brunt of racism and challenge White America like Blacks have been doing for so many decades and earn their place in America.

@Troy @Cynique Your arguments about race being poorly defined supports Cynique argument anout biology being a soft science. Although you have differing opinions in other sciences. Pgymies and Masai.

Perhaps..... But according to information I've gathered regarding the spiritual world, many individuals who've made to the other side STILL show an interest in humanity and especially the conditions of family members and other loved ones still left behind on THIS plane of existence.

Too me, there's a difference between the SOUL and the SPIRIT. The spirit is the life force or "chi" that runs through all living things whether they be humans, animals, plants, microbes, ect.... Where as the soul is the essense of that human being or animal....the REAL THEM. And this soul is independent of a body or even the spirit and can leave that body and spirit behind and travel. I believe when people are in comas their body and spirit remains while their soul is gone. Sometimes their soul comes back and they regain conciousness but if their spirit (life force) leaves then the body dies. Troy One of the problems I had with "Heaven" from a very early age was the concept of eternity. An eternity of anything would become a hell for me. Troy you take me as a brother who loves to LEARN. What if you had and eternal amount of time to learn in depth the TRUTH about everything that interested you from the life of Jesus to the Haitian Revolution to what really happened with Martin and Malcolm, ect.....? Perhaps "heaven" and the afterlife would offer you that opportunity. Maybe even get to see everthing in 3D and from the various 1st person perspectives. You could even see how Harlem went from a Jewish neighborhood to a Black one....lol.