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The Problem of Identifying Ourselves Based Upon Whites' Concept of Race


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This is a short (sub-3 minute) video.  If made me think of conversations we have been having here.  Particularly as if concern race.  Anyone who has been active on these forums knows I believe we should dispense with the concept of race in its entirety because it is flawed scientifically and it provides a mechanism for us to hold onto racist stereotypes that have never served us.  The video below speaks to the later.

 

Leonce, the Brother speaking in this video is a novelist. His book, I Dreamt I Was in Heaven - The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang is an 18 time AALBC.com besteller. He is currently the 20th bestselling author on this site over the past 20 years.

 

The video describes the premise of his first (I believe) nonfiction work; Whites Shackled Themselves to Race and Blacks Have Yet to Free Ourselves.  Let me know what you think.

 

 

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@Troy 

my parents raised me to think this way.  Before cross-cultural awareness was a thing - it was how I viewed the world.  First from my immediate cultural perspective then how others' behavior informed their culture.   So yes, that's it.  I don't see race, per se and I never have. I see culture and subcultures in humans. 


Here's my backstory: 

My dad was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany and that's where my public education began. Since the school was affiliated with the U.S. Military - I didn't encounter "race" indoctrination.  When we returned to the states, I was a cosmopolite. Yes, 5 going on 6 and I was already a citizen of the world.  By then it was hard to talk me off my foundation.  When I was confronted with race and the civil rights movement - my mom told me humans were all the same.  I remember using the word nigger when I was in the doctor’s office looking at a magazine.  It was Jamaica travel ad and I remember saying the little girl in the picture looked like a nigger.   My mother said when retelling the story that a "pink" woman in the office smirked.  My mother quickly corrected me right there. She said people were fair-skin some were brown-skin and everything in between.  What's weird is looking back, the little girl looked just like me.  I was under the influence of grown folks’ conversation.  I used their” nigger" label and depiction of a girl who looked like me.   I made a note to younger self that would be the first and last time I let the national conversation influence my concept of me, my culture or any culture.  I kept that promise too. 

My mom indoctrinated me to her concept of beauty and that's been hard to shake. If I'm not slim-trim, well-dressed and hair perfectly coiffed I'm not fit for polite company.  But that too is part of my culture (or sub-culture.)

My mother never said whites, negros or coloreds, it was fair-skin, brown-skin.  I would later learn that my father wanted to share the harsh realities of "racism" with me, but my mother said "no" because there were more important things I had to learn.  She is an education advocate and I still have more books in my library than I can read in this lifetime.

But get this, my mother uses the most derogatory terms when it comes to cultures.  She didn't when I was young, nor did she use those terms when my daughters were in their formative years.  
  
Aside: She didn't tell me about her battle with colorism within the family until I was older.   Her skin color was the darkest in the family. The women of my maternal line are light brown to fair-skin with light colored eyes and jet-black hair.  My great great-grandmother's father was native American, her mother was from Ethiopia, East Africa.  We think she was a free negro since we can't find any enslaved people in my maternal line.  We are from the north - most of my maternal family live or are buried in West Virginia.  I empathize with those who were enslaved in this country. I hold a harsh opinion of those who did the enslaving.  I give a side-eye to those who sold off or let Africans be captured.  None of it defines me.  

 

 Case-in-point, a boy called me "nigger" when I was bussed out of my middle-class to upper-middle class black West Indian and Jewish neighborhood to go to a school in an Italian American poor to working-class neighborhood.  Yes, that was NYC bright idea of diversity back in the late 70s lol.   By then I already knew who I was in relation to the world. So instead of internalizing it; I beat his Italian-azz.  It was no different than him calling me out of my name.   My euro-Jewish teacher tried to chastise but I was "eff you too".   

You already know about our high-school - it was about as diverse as any public school could be - except we were the talented tenth of all cultures in NYC. 

It wasn't until I got to St. John's University did I have to face the reality of” racism" and clash of the cultures.   In college, you realize the clash is more about competition and folks will use anything at their disposable to graduate top dawg to get that head start in the rat race.   

 

But it was social media that blew up my cultural reality.  I learned that everyone doesn't have the same understanding of the game.   I learned there was a difference between blacks - almost the same as what WEB Du Bois revealed in his Social Studies report in 1901 ... There was a difference between southern and northern blacks - there was a difference between free negros and newly freed enslaved blacks.  True to that 1901 report my mother. a northerner married my father a southerner.  His family were sharecropper but had to escape the south because someone had a hit out on his father.  My grandmother with her 9 children made it to Brooklyn but her husband did not.  My paternal grandmother had to start all over.  It took them just one generation to become lower middle-class and the next generation (me and my first paternal cousins all got accepted to BTHS (wild, right?) one of my first cousins is a millionaire.  I think what saved them was cultural assimilation. The sisters and brothers left their southern culture behind and quickly assimilated and all married northerners. 

So that's a snippet of my back story and how it informed my cultural view of the world.   

 

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@Troy

 

I love his video. It is on point. 

 

There is a complexity that exists that we also need to step into.

 

While the concept of “race” is something we most certainly need to dispense with given that it is a social construct created by whites to place themselves above all other “races” and cultures, we cannot dispense with the very real, tangible and visible biological fact of our melanin rich skins. It is our melanin richness that whites used, given the evident nature of our melanin, visually amazing and powerful, to create the construct of race. Were it not for our visually evident melanin, they would not have had the opportunity to construct a social notion called race that they now use against us and have brainwashed much of the planet to use against us.

 

At the end of the day, race is really a more charged word for our visual differences, all of us. The word race is not strictly used for melanin rich people. European biology breaks down all races, including their own, as one on a list of several “races” which is based on our physiology. And, quiet as it is kept, our overall biology. Just as slight differences in DNA make me a woman and you a man, DNA also gives me melanin, Chinese slanted eyes, Whites a brachycephalic head, so and so forth. DNA plays a role in every aspect of our physiology and biology, even when it comes to disease, DNA steps in and can alter how our children are born, passing on to them often deadly diseases once latent in our lineage. 

 

So although race can and should be cast aside due to how it has developed in the cultural and what it has done to us, my melanin (a visual representation of what my DNA has created) cannot be dispensed with. It is there to be seen. 

 

One of my melanin rich friends told me about a conversation she had with her white friend. In any case, her white friend one day said to her that she doesn’t see color. Now most people would get all warm and fuzzy and be happy that this woman said that. But my friend, who is a fierce thinker, turned to her friend and said, ‘Now you’ve just insulted me.’ I smiled and listened as she explained why she said that to her friend. She asked her friend what was wrong with her color that in her mind she must make it invisible? Is her brown skin ugly? Unworthy? Low in her esteem that she feels that the only way she can cope with being her friend is to make her melanin invisible? Her color gone? I whole heartedly agree with my friend. What is this nonsense about not seeing my melanin? What does that mean from a psychological standpoint exactly? And how do these folks who have constructed the term race see me when they now claim to not see the very thing they once abused us for? I am not asking you or anyone these questions directly. They are merely questions we need to meditate on. In general, why does my melanin (color) need to be invisible for there to be comfort in European culture, or even in melanin rich cultures for that matter? Given that some of us are on board with this thinking of ignoring our beautiful melanin.

 

Why do I need to dispense with discussion of my melanin? Isn’t that what makes me beautiful? What is wrong with my melanin that I must make it invisible in an effort to make whites comfortable, or, worse, to transform society into an “equal” society? My color must be subdued as a discussion in order for me to be equal, treated equally? Seen as equal? While I can dispense with notions of race given what it’s done socially to us, I will never attempt to NOT discuss my melanin to help forward society. There is NOTHING wrong with my melanin. Nothing. And I won’t hide my words around it and subdue it for the comfort of those who take issue with my beautiful melanin rich skin. Never going to happen. Those who ask me to make my melanin invisible are people I want nothing to do with. They don’t make their melanin-poor skin invisible. They attempt to make it so visible and superior that they’ve driven nearly every brown culture on Earth, even the non-brown cultures such as Chinese, to use skin whitening cream to make themselves whiter. Why? Because melanin should be hated and every culture is taught to hate melanin. Even the Aborigines, which “science” labeled as Caucasian still caught hell, regardless of the label science had given them. Why? Because of their melanin. Their race classification was Caucasian for a very long time, yet they were oppressed because of their melanin. So what does that say about their own discussions about race? It is meaningless. When it serves them, they use it. When it doesn’t serve them, they ignore it, like they did with the Aborigines. 

 

Race be damned. But my melanin is not going away and I am not invisible; and any white person who says they don’t see color is, frankly, a disgusting human being who plays into the reasons why all this madness continues to happen. SEE me!!! SEE my melanin!! And let that be OK! It is OK for me to be brown!

 

And for the record, I use white/black only to forward the conversation given that that is the term 95% of people use and can understand when discussing such issues. But I often prefer to use melanin rich or melanin deficient when speaking with those who know how I converse about these things.

 

Reference history (per the video), I have a personal library of over 5,000 books. I read from Ivan Van Sertima, to John Henrik Clarke, to Cheikh Anta Diop, to Yosef Ben-Jochannan, and everyone in between. Including thinkers such as Lillian Smith, author of Strange Fruit and Killers of the Dream. I am very present with and aware of my history. I know why I use the terms I use. I have a deep understanding of who we are and how far back our history spans. I am still working on Yurugu, an amazing work by Marimba Ani, which dissects the European mindset to a great degree. What I think many melanin rich people should also read is Falsification of African Consciousness by Amos Wilson. Now that really digs into the how and why of many aspects of this culture.

 

My belief is we need to focus on how we think, above all else. The language we use is important, but we need to begin transforming that language and really looking at the nuances and why European culture even created certain words/terms. There are words in the dictionary that are illegitimate and don’t belong. And/or, words that we need to redefine because they’ve been bastardized, or more specifically, the idea of the word has been bastardized, such as race. This is all a mind game meant to keep us focused on everything but enriching ourselves. Race is a cunning synonym for melanin. If they used the term melanin, a biological term, they could get themselves bound up in all sorts of flawed logic that could easily be torn down. But when they invent the word race, which subtly attempts to diverge away from the word melanin, it becomes easier to create intellectual garbage and reasoning around their behaviors. And, create negative stereotypes around us as a culture. 

 

As a Jamaican woman, I never grew up seeing race, only class and culture. But that did not mean there wasn't an issue with color on the island and here in America within Jamaican communities. It remains so to this day. Even within brown skinned communities, we have been made to believe that lighter skin is better than darker skin. This comes from our melanin being made to seem inferior, which is why I think it is dangerous to attempt to pretend our melanin is invisible in this culture we live in. My Jamaican roots of diversity and racial equality (or more specifically how my family raised me) did not shield me from cultural behaviors around melanin rich peoples. 

 

Anyhoo, let me stop rambling on. Bottom line, I agree with you, but with some additions/deletions and clarifications on how I view it. We should dispense with the concept of race. But we need to be careful that we are not dispensing with our melanin as a discussion, in an effort to make others feel comfortable about who they are and how they look. 

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Man I'm going to make sure Leonce sees these comments, they are just so thoughtful and profound. I may quote from these comments in my next letter.  It would be nice if others shared as well.

 

@Mel Hopkins, though we converged at Brooklyn Tech our paths there were entirely different.  I grew up in segregated East Harlem where you where either Black or Puerto Rican. I did not know any white people my age until I got to Tech.  Even then the only ones I really got to know were on the teams I competed on.  To this day NY City Public schools are very segregated by both "race" and class. 

 

@zaji, what you wrote is probably better articulates what @Pioneer1 has been trying to communicate regarding race.  Pioneer does what Zaji wrote reflect what you believe.

 

I "saw" race.., and that is largely my biggest problem.  I thought all Black people lived in the 'hood and were poor.  This is all I saw growing up and this was reinforced by the images I saw on TV. The Blaxploitation films were filmed in my neighborhood, The Projects the TV Show Good Times depicted could have very easily been the one I grew up in.

 

The Cosby Show which later might have changed my perspective, but I'm sure I would have assumed that is was far fetched; Doctors don't marry lawyers and live in big houses in NYC.  In fact the one of the first Brownstones, like the one the Huxtables lived in, that I'd ever been in, that was not cut up into apartments, was the one I owned. The life my kids was provided would have been completely alien to the one I lived even though they lived walking distance from where I was raised.

 

What what I was seeing was not race, but largely culture and often the two are confused.  Most people would see Zaji, Mel, and myself as just "Black" people largely indistinguishable from each other.  The reality is that culturally we are different.  One good thing about the artificial construct of race is that it has brought us together :)

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@Troy Indeed. This construct has done something. For me, it hasn't brought us together as much as reminded us of what we were prior to all this mess. The "good" it has done is bittersweet. 

 

I recently wrote a piece called, Racism: The Unacceptable Excuse, which speaks to how I feel about the use of even the word racism as a method of dissecting European behaviors.

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My neighborhood the kids were mostly black. I told my mother we lived in a chocolate city. She said the majority of people were white although the kids were majority black. 

 

From second grade through high school the kids were mostly white. 

 

Growing up my parents exposed us to culture and art . We saw Alvin Ailey and the Negro ensemble company.

 

I have had drinks dinners and conversations with racists. Which on hindsight is interesting. Because I didn't fit the stereotype of an urban youth or an Oreo. 

 

There are different expressions of racism. From the KKK liberals conservatives media and culture. I just like challenging Blacks and Whites. 

 

Blacker than thou

Black is what Black does.

 

I don't want  anyone to define me.

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I've always felt that slave descendants in America created their own unique culture.  For the diaspora to reach waaay back to our  African origins and cobble together a generic culture  gleaned from a continent made up of many different countries  is almost a cry  of desperation.  Instead of clinging to the past,  pride should be taken in how over 4 centuries  we, as human beings,  have scratched out our own niche in this country. ( The process of making kinky hair manageable by straightening it, for instance, is a part of our culture that should not  be disparaged by those seeking to shame a custom which originated with blacks, - which made  Madame C J Walker a millionaire, - and which spawned a traditional black beautician industry.) Our music, our cuisines, our colorful slang,  our style and swag have created a black mystique envied and emulated by the dominant white culture. All of this transcends our pigment.

 

I have also contended that the black experience differs from person-to-person, depending greatly on where you were born and raised. i, myself, am an 84-year-old  mid-westerner who grew up a small town. I always attended integrated schools, including college, have never had a black teacher, and have never had a white person call me a "nigger to my face. And something  i often marvel over is how during 1953 down in Montgomery, Alabama,  when Rosa Parks finally balked at sitting in the back of the bus, I and a handful of other black coeds, resided in an integrated housing unit on the campus of the University of Illinois, a dormitory where white maids cleaned our rooms, and a  white wait-staff served us our meals in the dining room.  During this same period, when Emmit Till was lynched for allegedly ogling a white woman during his visit to Mississippi, one of my black dorm mates from Chicago was engaged to a white guy. Even my father as a farm boy growing up in Kansas during the early 1900s, attended an integrated one- room school house and swam in the same swimming hole with white kids during a time when lynching was common. I'm sure the kind of life i've led is similar to others who grew up away from the Jim Crow south.  We blacks are as much different as we are alike. 

 

As in other cultures,  a  class division does exist  within the  African American community where the values and lifestyles of inner city blacks differ from those of upwardly mobile ones. ( Unfortunately,  the caste system based on color persists across the board.)  Considering their different circumstances and how varied  blacks are in appearance,  our diversity is stifled when branded by a white invention known as "race".  This is where the familiar claim of blacks not being a monolith kicks in.  It is also the point where i will fall back on my favorite axiom:  "it is, what it is". 

 

22 hours ago, zaji said:

While the concept of “race” is something we most certainly need to dispense with given that it is a social construct created by whites to place themselves above all other “races” and cultures...

 

To me this is the bottom line! The concept of race enables the discrimination which nullifies the idea of our being one entity made up of a single human species. So categorizing people by "race" does, indeed, benefit whites more than it does blacks because it allows the power structure to elevate to a superior status, the race designated as white. (i got the impression is that this is where Leone is coming from.)  Also, I'm not convinced that race and culture are interchangeable. IMO, culture is a "way-of-life", not a "how-we-look".  

 

 BTW,  zaji, you are a very skilled writer.  It's a pleasure to read your well-articulated views.  Don't be a stranger.   

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I, too, was raised in a military family and spent time in Germany.  My parents were also strivers, but that was back in the early-mid 1960s.  I wrote this book because they struggled and fought all their lives to keep their children from succumbing to the image whites might have of us.  Their goal was admirable, but they didn't have the tools to go about it in a way that didn't do almost as much damage.  As DuBois said, if you constantly look at and measure yourself through the eyes of those who despise you, you are doomed.  My parents could not yet see Afro-Americans as a cultural force second-to-none.  They were still fighting for basic respect in the workplace and the right to shop and live where they wanted.  I believe we have an enormous amount to gain by shedding some of the mindset of our past. Some of that mindset has served us brilliantly, but it's time to move forward as opposed to constantly looking back.  We now have the cultural tools to teach ourselves who we are and stop looking at ourselves through others' eyes.  Political equality is all one can ask of politics. Cultural equality is a demotion.  We are have come farther and accomplished more than any other group of Americans. I think it's time we acknowledge that, and teach ourselves this brilliant history and culture we've created, instead of waiting for those who have spent a history despising us to fill that role.

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Troy

There's a lot to chew on in this thread.
Let me check it out a little more carefully when I have more time, but I will say this much.......

 

 

It's funny to see people of color sitting around attempting to decided whether or not they will accept a concept that not only THEY didn't even invent and was invented by White people and used to enslave and exploit them, but a concept that they can do little about removing whether they accept it or not.

It's like a bunch of prisoners sitting around in their cell having philosophy sessions about whether or not the concept of prisons, wardens, and inmates really exist.
They can sit around and ponder all day long but at the end of the day the the prison is real, they are in it, and they have little power to change this because they didn't invent the system and don't know how to get themselves out.

In other words........

 

IT DOESN'T MATTER   whether or not BLACK PEOPLE accept the existence of race or not....WHITE SUPREMACISTS DO.

THEY SEE different races.
THEY SEE themselves as "White" and superior and people of color as a different race and inferior.
And until YOU get more power than THEM....you would be wise to atleast familiarize yourself with the concept of different races whether you really accept it or not.
 

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5 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

 

Troy

There's a lot to chew on in this thread.
Let me check it out a little more carefully when I have more time, but I will say this much.......

 

 

It's funny to see people of color sitting around attempting to decided whether or not they will accept a concept that not only THEY didn't even invent and was invented by White people and used to enslave and exploit them, but a concept that they can do little about removing whether they accept it or not.

It's like a bunch of prisoners sitting around in their cell having philosophy sessions about whether or not the concept of prisons, wardens, and inmates really exist.
They can sit around and ponder all day long but at the end of the day the the prison is real, they are in it, and they have little power to change this because they didn't invent the system and don't know how to get themselves out.

In other words........

 

IT DOESN'T MATTER   whether or not BLACK PEOPLE accept the existence of race or not....WHITE SUPREMACISTS DO.

THEY SEE different races.
THEY SEE themselves as "White" and superior and people of color as a different race and inferior.
And until YOU get more power than THEM....you would be wise to atleast familiarize yourself with the concept of different races whether you really accept it or not.
 

 

 

Agreed. That's the whole point of this book. On the one hand, we must know how the mainstream has been taught to regard themselves and us, then we must teach ourselves our own history and culture so we have the tools to battle their toxic indoctrination. No one is suggesting that we ignore race, just that we refuse to submit to it.  I think we need to teach ourselves to live in the often-racist society we have vs. pretending that we will, any day now, reach the colorblind shangri-la with which too many in the majority credit themselves.

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32 minutes ago, leonceg said:

No one is suggesting that we ignore race, just that we refuse to submit to it. 

 

This is where I think a lot of folks get confused.  For example, I don't ignore "gender" constructs; I simply refused to submit to it.  In fact, when I hear someone discuss gender, I give them the side-eye and keep it moving. Those who embrace constructs and labels as if  it's a badge - tell me all I need to know about their level of engagement. 

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3 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

IT DOESN'T MATTER   whether or not BLACK PEOPLE accept the existence of race or not....WHITE SUPREMACISTS DO.

 

I tell folks this all the time. We can talk about it all day, but physical things are being done to us based on that which we wish to rename, reclaim, erase, et al. 

 

That is why i wrote my piece on Racism. I attempt to show that Whites have cunningly used our “race” as the excuse and cover for their psychological issues. And as their outlet for their collective violent tendencies. 

 

We are so busy worrying about them calling us negro, calling us nigger, calling us black, etc, and we calling ourselves these things, that we fail to address and discuss the fact that the ones focused on how we look are simlpy doing that to steer the conversation away from the fact that they are sick in the head.

 

If someone walked up to you, me or anyone sensible and said i hate you because you wear yellow shirts and i am going to hang you because of it, you would evidently think that they are a lunatic, not that they are yellow shirt haters or prejudiced against yellow shirts. They wwould simply be a manic spouting some trivial nonsense as an excuse to express their madness. That person would immediately be seen as someone who requries psychiatric help. 

 

Whites have picked something about us to focus on and we have been brainwashed to have real discussions about it rather than recognize that for them to use my melanin as the sole reason to dislike me is the behavior of a psychotic person with no logical and reasonable grasp on reality. And all discussion should focus on hiw to protect ourselves against their psychosis, rather fiddling with words they use to divert us away from the real deal. Cunning game they are play with words. Deeply cunning. 

 

Bottom line, we can say all day that my yellow shirt is beautiful, I won’t use the word yellow to describe my beautiful shirt and such things, but the psycho sees my yellow shirt (my melanin), hates it, wants to do me harm for it, and as with all psychos needing psychiatric/psychological help, my words won’t change their feelings or behavior in the moment. They need long term, possibly lifetime help. In the meantime, they need to be locked away so they cannot do me harm because i wear a yellow shirt. Or in this reality, wear my melanin that i cannot take off. 

16 minutes ago, Mel Hopkins said:

 

This is where I think a lot of folks get confused.  For example, I don't ignore "gender" constructs; I simply refused to submit to it.  In fact, when I hear someone discuss gender, I give them the side-eye and keep it moving. Those who embrace constructs and labels as if  it's a badge - tell me all I need to know about their level of engagement. 

 

When i hear too many labels being used i zone out of the comversation. 

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17 minutes ago, zaji said:

And all discussion should focus on how to protect ourselves against their psychosis,

 

Yes!  I would gladly host and participate in this discussion because damn, lawd knows these "yellow shirt" hating folks spend an inordinate amount time figuring out ways to harm us  and take our "lunch, and lunch money" !!!

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@zaji, the “yellow shirt” analogy was great. But we'd also have to consider that fact that the yellow shirt itself is subjective: to some people the yellow shirt might appear be to mustard or gold... or simply passing for yellow.

 

The lunacy is perfectly normal give the American culture.  How does one treat lunacy?

 

@leonceg, thanks for sharing your thoughts. 

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@Troy During slavery, the nuances of “the yellow shirt” were irrelevant. If you had even a hint of black, you were a slave, period. House slave maybe, but still a legal slave with no freedom. And for women, the added horror of being raped by the “master”. Quiet as it is kept, most prevelant in the West Indies was the rap of melanin rich men by white male slave owners as a form of humiliation and emasculation. 

 

Today, the nuances still don’t matter much. Lighter skinned melanin rich people are given better opportunities across the board, but they better know their place in many circles and not say or do the “wrong” thing. Mind numbing and controlling media (one of many methods) has become a new tool to strip us of our culture and common sense. 

 

Regardless of the shade of yellow, the lunacy persists. They still see yellow and its shades, and don’t like it/them. Then oppress us in various was because of it. Then they throw us the “hope” bone to pacify us. 

 

Us trying to get each other to change how we use labels given us does not address their madness. We can talk about it, nothing wrong with that, but we need to land our words and actions squarely on their behavior.  During slavery we were not oppressed because they “called” us nigger. We were oppressed because they put us in chains, denied us basic human rights, beat us, killed us, erased our history. If they decided tomorrow to beat me, enslave me, then call me a filthy no good cat, or filthy no good apple, then apple would become the word we claim to hate...as though the action isn’t the issue. They can call me apple, cat, dog, orange, nigger all day long. Their actions have and always will be the problem. A psycho is hanging us from trees because he doesn’t like the color of our shirt/skin. It is madness and so many of us want to live around the words they use rather than challenging them on their psychosis. Before the word negro entered the lexicon they were enslaving us. So the word is not the source of their behavior. They have mental issues.

 

What do i care if someone doesn’t like the color of my shirt? I begin to take issue only when they begin to use that dislike as an excuse to abuse me. Hate yellow all day long, but leave me alone. 

 

@Troy  As for treating lunacy...well, the first step is to stop treating them as though they are sane. One cannot cure a cold or flu by pretending they aren’t sick. If someone believes they are Santa Claus, how long do we go on humoring them? At what point do we say, look sweetie, you are not Santa and you most certainly cannot fly. 

 

We are treating lunatics as though they are sane. And because they are in a position of power, it causes cognitive dissonance in us, leaving us actually believing that the insane are not running the asylum. They are! Once we admit and realize that, then our conversations will change and we won’t let them get away with childish yet cunning wordplay that never leads to solutions.

 

 

 

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I would be remiss if i didn't take on the role of a polemicist.  Everybody makes good points.  Everybody also refers to the how and what white people do and will do, which is what they have done and continue to do.   So what is the "black" minority going to do about this - other than talk and reinforce each others ideas and assume that the "average" black person needs only to be informed about this manipulation, as if the effect of this will so intimidate "white" people that all of the blatant and subtle privileges that represent the pillars of institutionalized racism will magically disappear. Puleeze.  "Know thy enemy."  

 

I think all of this rhetoric could be encapsulated in 2 words "stay woke".  Woke to what?  That there is only one race but "white" people have fractured this truth into the falseness of many races in order to promote the white superiority that has enabled them to do this.  So black strategy should be - what?   To accept  what whites have deemed us to be because this will  give us an opportunity to deceive them the way they have been deceiving us?  And the impact of this appeasement on whites will be - what?  Talk is cheap and white folks have all the wealth. Debating the concept of race is an exercise in ambiguity. Black folks are actually who they choose to be, and are just as distracted by materialism as they are damaged by racism.  

 

I anticipate the response to my "negativity" will be that the goal is not to make an impact on whites, but on blacks. I think we need to get our priorities in order. Black folks should do some manipulating in order to stop the self destructive behavior and the baby daddy/baby mama life style that has destroyed the black family and filled prisons with black males who have grown up fatherless. Living in a suburb of "Chiraq" is what inspires this perspective.  

 

Just the thoughts of a "been there, done that" senior citizen.

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2 hours ago, Cynique said:

Black folks should do some manipulating in order to stop the self destructive behavior and the baby daddy/baby mama life style that has destroyed the black family 

 

@Cynique Would that be to maintain the wealth such as Jay Z mentions in his song "Family Feud"?     Because even as a divorced mother who also has a baby daddy  I can see how this is definitely a strategy if our goal is to maximize wealth in the black community.   Jay Z even has Beyonce listed as songwriter on this track - so again the intellectual property money stays in the family.   

 

Nah, I can't see your statement as negative - I see it as strategic and adds to the motif of "focusing on culture to take us forward."   

 

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On 2/5/2018 at 2:37 PM, Troy said:

Man I'm going to make sure Leonce sees these comments, they are just so thoughtful and profound. I may quote from these comments in my next letter.  It would be nice if others shared as well.

 

@Mel Hopkins, though we converged at Brooklyn Tech our paths there were entirely different.  I grew up in segregated East Harlem where you where either Black or Puerto Rican. I did not know any white people my age until I got to Tech.  Even then the only ones I really got to know were on the teams I competed on.  To this day NY City Public schools are very segregated by both "race" and class. 

 

@zaji, what you wrote is probably better articulates what @Pioneer1 has been trying to communicate regarding race.  Pioneer does what Zaji wrote reflect what you believe.

 

I "saw" race.., and that is largely my biggest problem.  I thought all Black people lived in the 'hood and were poor.  This is all I saw growing up and this was reinforced by the images I saw on TV. The Blaxploitation films were filmed in my neighborhood, The Projects the TV Show Good Times depicted could have very easily been the one I grew up in.

 

The Cosby Show which later might have changed my perspective, but I'm sure I would have assumed that is was far fetched; Doctors don't marry lawyers and live in big houses in NYC.  In fact the one of the first Brownstones, like the one the Huxtables lived in, that I'd ever been in, that was not cut up into apartments, was the one I owned. The life my kids was provided would have been completely alien to the one I lived even though they lived walking distance from where I was raised.

 

What what I was seeing was not race, but largely culture and often the two are confused.  Most people would see Zaji, Mel, and myself as just "Black" people largely indistinguishable from each other.  The reality is that culturally we are different.  One good thing about the artificial construct of race is that it has brought us together :)

I talk in the book about the whole "not really black" thing surrounding Obama in 2008 was actually a misguided cultural conversation. What folks meant was that Obama was not raised in the culture of the descendants of African slaves.  He adopted that culture in young adulthood.  However, we didn't have the language to discuss it because all we had on-hand was "black" and "white."  And that's not enough.

ShackledToRace.com

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I believe the first step is to put our self-education into our own hands.  We are currently relying on public schools run by those who accept a culture that continues to discriminate against us, dehumanize us, and limit our opportunities.  The history we have built in this nation is ours.  No one should teach it to our young but us.  There is an old saw that "Black history IS American history."  I reject that.  Afro-American history is something utterly different from the history experienced, inherited, or adopted by Americans who can call themselves white.  It's that history -- and that difference - we have to codify and embrace.

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mlets continue the prison aŕnalogy it's useful. 

 

What abpur the prisoners who are released but their mind is still imprisoned. 

 

You can decorate your cell however you like but it is still prison. 

 

The poetic horror is that you can only free yourself. You can give away many keys but inmates have to take that step. 

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1 hour ago, leonceg said:

I believe the first step is to put our self-education into our own hands.  We are currently relying on public schools run by those who accept a culture that continues to discriminate against us, dehumanize us, and limit our opportunities.  The history we have built in this nation is ours.  No one should teach it to our young but us.  There is an old saw that "Black history IS American history."  I reject that.  Afro-American history is something utterly different from the history experienced, inherited, or adopted by Americans who can call themselves white.  It's that history -- and that difference - we have to codify and embrace.

I guess sociologist Dr. Carter G. Woodson was ahead of his time when his book, "The Mis-Education of the Negro", was published in 1933,  - the year i was born.  But carry on.  Blacks have to get keep on doing it till they get it right.  "Hope springs eternal in the human breast!" ;)

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Zaji

I agree with you that Europeans came up with different racial classification for deceptive purposes. To keep their victims confused and divided.  But I also agree with you that the differences between with heavily melanated skin and those who are melanine deficient are very REAL, and you can see that reality in just the behavior alone.

To me....race is a reality based in biology and genetics, but I don't go with the ever-changing Caucasian definition of race and instead define and classify race using MY OWN terms that are in my opinion are closer to reality.

For example, instead of saying: Black and White....I use terms like African and Caucasian.

I also use terms like Afro-American, which encompasses ALL of the various shades of our people through out the Americas who are of African ancestry.....instead of using the term "Black" which really can only describe a few.


 

 

 

Troy


I grew up in segregated East Harlem where you where either Black or Puerto Rican. I did not know any white people my age until I got to Tech.


Actually, some of the Puerto Ricans you grew up around WERE WHITE; they just weren't considered so by United States standards.
But many WHITE PUERTO RICANS carry the same racist anti-Black attitude of their anglo counterparts.

Haitians are also Latinos, and look how the lighter skinned Latinos treat them.



you wrote is probably better articulates what @Pioneer1 has been trying to communicate regarding race. Pioneer does what Zaji wrote reflect what you believe.


Now I'm insulted......lol.

What do you mean "trying" to communicate?????
I've been telling you for months that race my infact be a social construct but it's also rooted in genetic and biological fact because of skin color as well as other physical feature.

NOW all of a sudden you "get it"??



 


Leonce

I agree with you that we need to start teaching OURSELVES who we are instead of waiting on the "majority" White people to teach and tell us who we are.

Maulana Karenga said that one of the greatest powers in the world is the ability to define reality and CAUSE OTHERS to accept it!

That's exactly what happens when we refuse to educate ourselves and allow others to educate us, basically given them power.
.
I like how you use the term "AfroAmerican".

If you read my posts, I usually refer to our people here in the Americas (North, South, Carribean) as AFRO-Americans instead of just "Black people".

.....because I see us as not just a race, but an ETHNIC GROUP with a very unique culture.


 

 

 


Cynique

 

So black strategy should be - what?


Like Zaji and Leonce said.....START DEFINING OURSELVES.

Specifically through properly educating our children so that they will grow up with a different mindset instead of the one that the slave-master PUT in the minds of previous generations.

 

 

 

 

 


All

 

A major part of the problem with racial definitions is the fact that people are too often confusing RACE with ETHNICITY and even NATIONALITY.

These are 3 distinct categories that often overlap eachother and adds to the confusion that already exists.

I invite you all to review a thread I made the previous year where I broke down the differences between RACE, NATIONALITY, AND ETHNICITY:

https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/4405-race-ethnicity-nationality101/

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LOL @Pioneer1, no need to be insulted man.  I just think Zaji articulated what I think you believe -- but she is a professional writer and she, like Leonce, have obviously put a great deal of thought into the subject and have written a lot about it.

 

Still you don't recognize the fact that there is no genetic basis for the racial categories you hold so dearly, which leads to faulty conclusions.  Again I think Zaji articulated the spirit of what you believe.  Am I right or wrong?

 

I didn't know anything about the colorism people around the world faced when I was a kid.  All I knew was that Puerto Ricans, like Black people, were every color under the sun and that we were all in the same ghetto boat -- and not white.

 

I think we also need a national daily newspaper that people actually read.  We will NEVER be able to define ourselves if we have no media -- which we don't.  What little we do have is largely concerned with mimicking what white media do.  Which is largely concerned with making as much money as possible -- which has never served Black people, or the Afro American, as a whole.

 

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Troy

Still you don't recognize the fact that there is no genetic basis for the racial categories you hold so dearly, which leads to faulty conclusions. Again I think Zaji articulated the spirit of what you believe. Am I right or wrong?


I agree with Zaji that while the concept of race itself is a social construct that was invented by White people, we must also acknowledge that the melanin in our skins is a real tangible fact and can't be ignored or dismissed as simply a social construct.

Melanin is in the genes.
Our Black to tan skin....it's genetically based and not simply a social construct.
Infact, so is the structure of our hair, the shape of our mouths and noses, and also our bone density.....these aren't simply social constructs but in our very genes.

In other words...........

Race is just a way of categorizing people
Your race is simply a  category that someone constructed to put you in to classify you.

However the PHYSICAL FEATURES that are used to define those categories are NOT social but GENETIC.




What little we do have is largely concerned with mimicking what white media do. Which is largely concerned with making as much money as possible -- which has never served Black people, or the Afro American, as a whole.


I think you're absolutely right.

Part of educating ourselves and re-defining ourselves is SETTING OUR OWN VALUES instead of adopting them from others.

I would say we should teach our children that money isn't an "end" in and of itself but a means TO more valuable "ends" such as:

Family
Great health
Food
Proper education
Land

These things are more valuable than money.

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Getting closer. So we concur on the social aspect however we still diverge on the genetic side.

 

Yes it is true that lip thickness, hair texture, the amount of melanin in our skin, and all the rest is described in our genes. However the combination of these things is not enough to accurately and consistently describe the categories we use to describe each race. On some level this should be somewhat obvious as we can't look at someone and accurately describe the racial bucket they belong in.

 

There is more genetic variability within a so-called race than there is between them. You may have more in common with Kim Kardashian genetically than you do with me.

 

This is why the scientific community has abandoned the of notion of a genetic basis for race, and why I have too.

 

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A rich source of melanin is beneficial to those who need to survive the effects of radiation.   Some could ingest it because it's also found in fungi.   
Using melanin to determine "race" is a slippery slope.  I rather not be someone's source of survival in an aftermath of a nuclear holocaust  because I'm dark skin. :o:D

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I applaud the good intentions of those seeking to rescue "Afro-Americans" from the villainy of this country, but here is another view  based on what i have observed over the last 25 years in my encounters with a broad cross section of  black people from all walks of life, none of whom  trust white people, or who give the media a lot of credibility but who do know that black people have a rich history and who do realize that education is important.  Few of these everyday people were as brainwashed and as unaware as some of you would have us believe. The average Afro-American is hip to the plight of black people in this country, and knows who and what is at the root of this and how important education and black identity are. With the advent and subsequent popularity of social media, a composite of the black consciousness has emerged and it reflects this awareness.  FaceBook, however, also provides a platform for the worst element of young black people, exposing them to be members of a wanton sub-culture caught up in vicious pettiness, sexual obscenity and senseless violence.

 

Instead of preaching the same message that originated with civil rights activists and black militants over 60 years ago, another strategy needs to include an emphasis on personal responsibility, one that discourages babies havin babies, and settling disputes with guns, and encourages overcoming a mindset enslaved by what you want instead of what you need.  Setting up a lofty agenda that is hard to implement is akin to wishful thinking.  Some good ol common sense is what's called for.   Racism aside, bad parenting skills and a false set of values are at the root of many black problems. Parents are who should be the role models of children, and when you're a  single  mother on welfare whose priority is to buy your baby a pair of high-priced Michael Jordan baby shoes, the end results are predictable.  When your idea of a parent teacher's conference is to go up to school and beat up or threaten Pookie's teacher for some imagined slight, then the end result is predictable.  When you reward your pregnant 17 year old daughter for undergoing what has become a rite of passage which involves having that first baby, and throw her a big shower that is the equivalent of a debutante's coming out ball, then the end result is predictable. When your unemployed boyfriend on parole is also the baby sitter for your not yet toilet-trained toddler, the end result will be predictable. You can out America as the racist shit-hole oligarchy that it is,  glorify African kings of the past and praise obscure Afro-American inventors all you want, - but until certain blacks are brainwashed into cleaning up their acts, the end results will be predictable.  

 

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Troy

However the combination of these things is not enough to accurately and consistently describe the categories we use to describe each race. On some level this should be somewhat obvious as we can't look at someone and accurately describe the racial bucket they belong in.


It's not that hard when you take into account that much of humanity is MIXED.

Like I said, there are DEFINATE RACES...the only problem is most Black people have been MIS-EDUCATED on the actual races and that's what's confusing them about who belongs to what.

You're not going to sit up there and tell me these two people are part of the same genetic stock or "race":


Image result for sudanese boy

 

 

 

Image result for norwegian girl

 

 

 

These may be racial extremes, but they are CLEARLY DIFFERENT and if you get rid of the concept of "race" then how would you classify them or identify them?

 

 

 

This is why the scientific community has abandoned the of notion of a genetic basis for race, and why I have too.


Who is the "scientific community"?
Are you telling me that because a group of nerdy White men sitting around in white coats and glasses making half of their decisions over cocktails while half drunk......we should follow THEM????

Western science is constantly changing based on INTERESTS.

First race DIDN'T exists.....then it DID.....now it DOESN'T anymore.

Race EXISTS when it serves the interests of the money makers.
And when it no longer serves the interests of the money makers they take it away.
15 years later when they need the concept of race again they RE-INVENT IT, and you're sitting there scratching your head trying to figure it out....lol.

Like I said in the other thread, Black people need to use their OWN experiences and observations to come to their OWN conclusions.


 

 

 

 

You may have more in common with Kim Kardashian genetically than you do with me.


First you tell me that I shouldn't be insulted....
THEN you turn around and claim me and some "big legged" White woman who sleeps with Kanye West have a lot in common....lol.

Man, how can I figure you out????

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43 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

@Pioneer1

 

These may be racial extremes, but they are CLEARLY DIFFERENT and if you get rid of the concept of "race" then how would you classify them or identify them?

Yes, yes and yes! Even WITHIN the melanin rich groups, there are different phenotypes that are CLEARLY different. Once can look at an Ethiopian, a Twa (bushmen) and an Aborigine of Australia and CLEARLY see their differences. Who does NOT know what an aborigine looks like? Their phenotype is so distinct there is no making a mistake.  We have different looks within our own groups, but now we want to act like there are no racial/phenotype differences between us and caucasians. There certainly is. And that is genetic!! WE have always classified ourselves in Africa. The Twa virtually NEVER mixed with the Masai, and so forth. THAT is why after thousands of years the Twa  look the way they look (like brown Chinese) and the Masai look the way they look, tall...very tall.

 

Quote

Who is the "scientific community"?
Are you telling me that because a group of nerdy White men sitting around in white coats and glasses making half of their decisions over cocktails while half drunk......we should follow THEM????

 

Exactly! THIS is the issue I have with us. We are believing a group of people who have spent over 2,000 years LYING to everyone and to each other. Folks forget about the Age of Fraud. That was some mess between them for over a century...trying to get each other's attention and favors and awards and money for "science." The Piltdown man is one of many examples of their deceitfulness. When it comes to us, they are even worse. Look how long they lied to those Tuskegee men. When I hear us talking about THEIR science, I laugh. They are jokes and WE need to begin looking more closely at their science, using our own common sense (even our OWN science) and be careful not to be trapped by their deceptiveness. I wish I would do that Ancestry.com test...not. You cannot slaughter most of the native peoples of North America, virtually extinct the Tasmanians, and numerous other groups, rape races into near none existence, diluting peoples like crazy, THEN start collecting our genetic material AFTER that and tell me where I am from and what I am. Um, no. For 90% of these companies, they are getting much of their data from European countries with not enough melanin people's data from the present and the past. I think Ancestry uses a lot of Scandinavian data. A melanin rich male friend of mine did the test and gonna come tell me that he has part Scandinavian in his DNA. It took everything in me not to laugh.

Western science is constantly changing based on INTERESTS.

 

Yes!! They change based on what they can get from the deception they create. I have a slew of the old advertisements for cigarettes, all of them extolling the virtues of smoking. Some even stating that their cigarette is so great, it can be smoked around babies! DOCTORS saying which cigarettes they smoke and how safe it is to smoke. DOCTORS!! They are LIARS and WE trust them?? I...CAN...NOT with us.


First race DIDN'T exists.....then it DID.....now it DOESN'T anymore.
 

Precisely. They change based on something they want. And now, since their numbers might now be lower than the 10% they seem to be on the planet compared to melanin rich peoples, they must boost their numbers by pushing interracial relationships. Easiest way to do this??? Tell everyone that the scientific/biological races (and yes, it has been based on science for over 100 years) are no longer true. How convenient that this new "science" has surfaced. Just in time to save their race. I have an entire book dedicated to the various races. Written around the early 1900s, maybe late 1800s. Over 200 pages of the various races and a breakdown of various aspects of said races.


Race EXISTS when it serves the interests of the money makers.
And when it no longer serves the interests of the money makers they take it away.
15 years later when they need the concept of race again they RE-INVENT IT, and you're sitting there scratching your head trying to figure it out....lol.

 

They have us like puppets on a string, using their "science" to legitimize their conversations. When will we see the game and STOP letting them drag us around like dogs on leashes? It's maddening. I think what kills me is the people who have been lied to the most, melanin rich folks, are the ones who believe their science the most. Unreal to me.


Like I said in the other thread, Black people need to use their OWN experiences and observations to come to their OWN conclusions.

That is how I do it. And that is why I read across all genres and sciences. I read EVERYTHING.  I don't limit myself to what makes me comfortable. I read National Geographic, Archeology Magazine, Nexxus magazine and all other mags/books having to do with the planet and the human body. I read books on their quantum theories, etc. Then I read melanin rich scientific theories and ideas and findings.  I clearly see where caucasians are making stuff up and where they have truly discovered something (or most likely unlocked a cabinet in the Vatican so they can pretend they made a new discovery after reading our ancient knowledge). What I notice is done to effectively keep us stupid is that the right and sensible questions are NEVER introduced in any scientific/biological discussion. NEVER. The questions that could unravel their nonsense are never ever asked. Ever. And when I put the unasked question to folks, even so called scientists, I get the deer in headlights look. 

 

 

 

@Pioneer1  Look, see what you are doing? You are getting me started. LOL. 

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Troy has repeatedly said that zaji and Pioneer are about spirit rather than science.  Science has no emotion or passion.  My philosophy is that there's the world as it is verbally defined and then there is the world as it exists.  Truth is in the eye of the beholder.  

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I'm all about science, as well as spirit. Nothing about European history has shown they are truly about science when they have gone through age upon age of Fraud and scientific deception. They are about what they can get from science, much of which did not begin with them. When they stop bringing their prejudices to science in an effort to make themselves better than others, then I'll be fully on board. Until then, I don't take everything they say and swallow it whole. I examine it and critique it to death, to ensure they are not once again deceiving us, as they have done for centuries upon centuries with everything they've ever touched. 

 

We need to go back to OUR science and stop following behind them. They are nothing more than intellectual thieves who have  bastardized the discoveries and inventions of others.

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Well , i always ask what do white people have to gain by abandoning the idea of different races?  It is to their advantage to  keep their artificial construct since, as everybody agrees, this allows them maintain white supremacy.  But in a emotional state, you can have it both ways, i guess. ;)   And it's not like scientists of color don't subscribe to the one race theory.

 

One thing for sure, the controversy will continue.

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Let me add something.

 

My husband worked at one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world, Eli Lilly. He was a chemist working in the lab for 30 years. He said in all that time, that 142 year old company cured nothing. As a chemist and scientist, he can attest to the fact that there is very little science in most science. This is not to say all science is bad. But more science is foolishness, than revelation and discovery. He said you would be surprised. One of his chemist buddies said that he was asked about a particular project he was working on in the lab. His colleague asked him what he saw in the experiment, the outcomes. His answer, "What do you want me to see?" Basically, he could skew the "science" to be whatever they want it to be for their benefit and profit. 

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5 minutes ago, Cynique said:

Well , i always ask what do white people have to gain by abandoning the idea of different races?  It is to their advantage to  keep their artificial construct since, as everybody agrees, this allows them to maintain white supremacy.  But in an emotional state, you can have it both ways, i guess. ;)   And it's not like scientists of color don't subscribe to the one race theory.

 

One thing for sure, the controversy will continue.

 

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As I wrote in my piece on racism, whites use this very real genetic fact, my melanin, as an excuse to cover up their violent behavior. Basically, it's not that they are narcissistic lunatics, it is because I am brown why they do what they do. My brown skin is real, anyone can see that. My brown skin is a genetic fact that has markers for it, just as there is a marker for slanted eyes in Chinese and a marker for the straight haired Aborigine and original dark brown skinned Native Americans. There are genetic markers for all these things, coded in the DNA, and they've found these markers. A very long time ago actually. All cats are cats, but a lion is very different from a tiger and a leopard and a black panther  and so on. But they are all cats, just like we are all humans. Being human doesn't mean we are not different. Just like being a cat doesn't mean they are not all different. All cats in the animal kingdom have varying habits. AND, the most interesting thing...unless they are in captivity, they do not breed with each other. You won't see a lion rolling up on a black panther's spot and trying to screw it. But they are all cats.  At the end of the day, whites benefit from keeping race AND getting rid of it. Both. They benefit based on their needs in the moment. We shouldn't keep swaying with their wind. When we do that, WE are not being scientific, but rather, sheep with no common sense.

 

So race/melanin/phenotypes are real. However, HOW they are used is what is NOT real. THAT is what we need to fight against, how they are using our melanin (physically and socially). We dispense with race not to ignore my melanin, but to derail how my very real and visual difference is used.

 

I believe the brainwashing is deep and we've become so divided that sometimes some of us can't see beyond the games they play...the games we play into. 

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Well since whites benefit from both the one race theory and the artificial construct, sounds like a no-win Catch-22 situation to me.  Since this is all about theory as opposed to practice, I think there are other more pressing issues for blacks to worry about.   

 

And you knew i'd say that , didn't you?  LOL 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This article is fairly recent, 2005, but it talks about the specific gene discovered for melanin. It was known long before this that there was a melanin gene. Common sense dictates this given what we've learned about DNA. There is a gene for everything in the human body, whether we've discovered it yet or not. 

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/researchers-identify-huma

 

I learned about threonine and alanine long before reading this article. I have been doing heavy research on melanin for about 10 years now. I have copious notes. I discovered the threonine and alanine connection to melanin about 8 years ago. At that time, I hadn't heard talk about a discovered gene in the mainstream. All my discoveries where made through other mediums and through connecting the dots on my own. 

 

When I finally began to hear the mainstream discuss it, it was hushed up pretty quickly, then resurged for the benefit of profit via companies such as Ancestry.com. So now the discovery was being used to take people's hard earned money without discussing the many factors not being discussed around finding one's ancestry. 

 

Anyhoo, I continue to research melanin. And I see the game they are playing with race/phenotype/melanin.

 

5 minutes ago, Cynique said:

Well since whites benefit from both the one race theory and the artificial construct, sounds like a no-win Catch-22 situation to me.  Since this is all about theory as opposed to practice, I think there are other more pressing issues for blacks to worry about.   

 

And you knew i'd say that , didn't you?  LOL 

 

It is all pressing. But this discussion of race is just a discussion and certainly not at the top of the list of things that are pressing. We prioritize the best way we know how. This is a forum after all, not a place for sword and canon. So all we can actively do here is share our words. But we knew that already, right? LOL.

 

This space is meant for talk. So then, let's talk. And when we get weary of the talk, we get out of here and go DO something offline. But we can't do the physical required for change here. This space is what it is.

 

As for theory, the issue with all this, no matter what we call theory, whites are putting into practice. So theories become tangible things we must fight to destroy. We cannot ignore the theories imposed on us. They are the things that have led us to this place.

 

 

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@zajiMy only objection is your use of the pronoun "we".  i've dropped out of the struggle except to take on the role of devil's advocate in order to nudge dreamers into reality and i have no intentions of becoming an activist; too old and tired.  I think what's  becoming apparent when it comes to me and the rest of you, is that there's a serious generation gap.  Because so much of what is new to y'all, is old to me.  "Post racial" America serves as the backdrop for this scenario.  All of the aspirations and awareness voiced back in the '50s and '60s,  are the same ol re-heated ones that Gen-Xers and Millennials are now blowin' smoke about because the progress of the civil rights era has regressed and blacks find themselves back at square one. This sounds like what could be a teachable moment. But all i can do is give you all an "E" for effort and hope that the ballot box continues to be a weapon.  

 

What looms in my mind is that whites consider themselves superior for a reason.  Whatever else figures in the picture, they are superior at seizing and maintaining control of the country they stole from Native Americans,-  a land where blacks are tenants rather than owners.   So Blacks, Afro-Americans, African Americans, People of Color or whatever the flavor of the day is,  are left standing around, marching in place, articulating solutions and issuing warnings, pursuing the elusive goal of unity, a goal that never takes root because slave descendants are a hybrid crop prone to doing their own thing.  

   

A while back i mused about the aftermath of the inevitable fall of The American  Empire.  After this nation implodes, what could rise from the ashes would be the opportunity for like-minded survivors to converge into groups which could found their own little  countries on the singed territory once known as the United States.  One of these sects could be black people. This could be when, amidst a stirring chorus of "Kumbyaaaa",  they can shut up talking about what black folks need to do, and get on with it.   A scenario that sure ain't gonna happen in today's "amerika", the home of treacherous, powerful white people and verbose, impotent black ones.

 

Time to remind that the screen name "Cynique" is derived from the word "cynical".       

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41 minutes ago, Cynique said:

 My only objection is your use of the pronoun "we".  i've dropped out of the struggle except to take on the role of devil's advocate in order to nudge dreamers into reality and i have no intentions of becoming an activist; too old and tired. 

I've never been an activist. I see the reality and have never seen where many activist movements have done much other than pacify us into inertness. Folks march, they hand us a pacifier to shut us up, we shut up because the pacifier satisfies us in the moment (cause it's better than what we had before), then they continue to do more dirt often in subterfuge, sometimes openly.  I stopped dreaming decades ago.

Also, I use we only as a general statement, not to imply that you should join in on anything. 

 

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I think what's  becoming apparent when it come to me and the rest of you, is that there's a serious generation gap.  Because so much of what is new to y'all, is old to me.  "Post racial" America serves as the backdrop for this scenario.  All of the aspirations and awareness voiced back in the '50s and '60s,  are the same ol re-heated ones that Gen-Xers and Millennials are now blowin' smoke about because the progress of the civil rights era has regressed and blacks find themselves back at square one.

 

Agreed. Which is why I laugh at all the talk talk talk we carry on with. It's become humorous to me, but in a not so funny way.  I may not be your age, but I know a whole lot of history and I'm personally tired of all the jaw jacking going on and the rehashing of crap. It's exhausting. I read the history elders such as yourself have made and watch as folks now add nothing new to the conversation. I am forever telling folks that they are repeating everything, guided by the hands of those in power who benefit from us being repetitious. This is why i believe we need to educate ourselves and stop going to their schools. They keep us in this endless loop.  It keeps us from moving forward and growing out of the position we are in.

 

This sounds like what could be a teachable moment. But all i can do is give you all an "E" for effort and hope that the ballot box continues to be a weapon.  

Try not to condescend. It doesn't serve anyone. There are mistakes on all fronts, even during your generation. Let's try to work together and not play into the wedge this Caucasian culture attempts to put between elders and the current generation. It is a game we shouldn't play. They've put it in their movies and sitcoms and music, disrespect elders, put them away in nursing homes, talk to them like they are stupid. I don't go for this game that so many now buy into. Were it not for your generation, this young and sometimes rude generation would not have cell phones and computers and Facebook and forums and all the things that this generation now uses to interact as though they invented all this stuff. YOUR generation made this communication between you and I happen. I am aware of that. But if you condescend without knowing who is awake and aware of what is going on, you could lose a golden opportunity to TRULY "teach".  At the end of the day, you can care or not about what I'm saying because as an elder, you don't have to, but I'm just letting you know I HEAR you and dismiss nothing you say. I am merely sharing my thoughts as well. So don't assume those in my age group, 50 years old, are stupid and can't learn anything. I have learned much and condescending blocks communication. So let's communicate and see what we can ALL learn from our conversations together, because NO ONE is too old to learn. Whether they wish to or not is their downfall, but no one is too old.

As for the ballot box, I don't believe it will change anything because I  believe, based on court hearings I've watched interrogating programmers who were asked if they could program ballot boxes to change votes (the answer was, yes), that they are all controlled and people on the Federal level are most likely selected rather than elected. I believe local elections can affect change is small ways, but not at the White House level. We are like yo-yos on a string when it comes to government politics. Further, why do we continue to trust a group of people who have been lying to us for centuries? It's just strange to me that we would. 

 

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A while back i mused about the aftermath of the inevitable fall of The American  Empire.  After this nation implodes, what could rise from the ashes would be the opportunity for like-minded survivors to converge into groups which could found their own little  countries on the singed territory once known as the United States.  One of these sects could be black people. This could be when, amidst a stirring chorus of "Kumbyaaaa",  they can shut up talking about what black folks need to do, and get on with it.   

 

On that, we DEFINITELY agree. Hence why I say so little. I've been a part of this forum for probably over a year and have said barely two words until now. Why? Because I'm tired of the blasted Kumbyaa and chatter that leads nowhere because all people want to do is argue and talk down to each other, debating who is right or wrong, as the world turns and nothing changes, but, often times, gets worse. I thought this could be a place where conversation could lead to action without everyone thinking they are better and smarter than everyone else, and speaking in tones that resemble superiority. I'm still hopeful. Whether I hang around will be determined by the tone going forward. It's been interesting so far...as long as we all remember that we are not perfect, and from a cosmic standpoint, we could ALL be wrong about everything we think and believe. When we are humble enough to consider that we COULD be wrong about any given idea, THEN we can affect real change. Because we are not abrasive and condescending and assuming and superior in how we do this thing called communication and are open to ideas that make us uncomfortable.

 

Time to remind that the screen name "Cynique" is derived from the word "cynical".       

 

Stay cynical elder Cynique. We need that in order to keep us honest and balanced in how we view our plight. I appreciate very much your devil's advocate approach. VERY much. We do not often grow when everything is sweet and nice. We grow by being honed by those who challenge us and our ideas.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You are a powerful thinker. I'll be back to read your words!  

 

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Race is subjective; a recently created construct  that has been abandoned by the scientific community, but firmly held onto by lay people.

 

The amount of melanin one has is, of course, based upon their genetics and one's genotype is objective -- about as subjective as you can get.

 

However, @zaji, @Pioneer1, why is there no genetic test for race?

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2 hours ago, Troy said:

Race is subjective; a recently created construct  that has been abandoned by the scientific community, but firmly held onto by lay people.

 

The amount of melanin one has is, of course, based upon their genetics and one's genotype is objective -- about as subjective as you can get.

 

However, @zaji, @Pioneer1, why is there no genetic test for race?

 

@Troy  They have isolated the gene for skin color. And there are genes for every feature that humans have, their phenotypes, which is really all they are calling race. In other words, race is merely one's phenotype coupled with their skin color. They are being clever with the words they use to keep us arguing over this mess. Genetic research CAN tell a person's phenotype/race. Even without genetic tests, our bone structures are different, which is a major aspect of race/phenotype even before one gets to skin color. If genes don't determine how a Chinese looks or how an Aborigine looks, then what does? Chinese have slanted eyes, what is considered a phenotype (or race), because of their genetic make-up. How do you think Ancestry.com is surviving? They are sampling not just locations, but racial groups to perform their tests on others. They are tossing in a few games given that they do not have access to all phenotypes that have ever existed, therefore cannot produce honest scientific outcomes, but it is based on race at the end of the day.

 

Skin Color Gene: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/researchers-identify-huma

 

They are playing word games with people's heads Troy. They have known about this color gene long before 2005.

Check this out:  https://www.amren.com/news/2007/10/the_inconvenien 

 

And this (where the above came from): https://www.wired.com/2007/12/ps-dna/

Trust me Troy, they know already that DNA can show race, a clever term for phenotype. They don't want YOU to know because they are getting something out of this game they are playing. 

 

Here is an ABC report on Frudakis' technology that includes standard technology: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125079&page=1

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Are you saying that skin color determines one's race? You are darker than me, so are you a "purer" Black person?  My biological sister (we have the same parents), is much lighter than I.  Is she "less" Black?  What shade of skin color do you draw the line, and no longer consider someone part of the Black "race?"

 

It will take me a moment to review the links to see the evidence for a genetic test for race.

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1 hour ago, Troy said:

Are you saying that skin color determines one's race? You are darker than me, so are you a "purer" Black person?  My biological sister (we have the same parents), is much lighter than I.  Is she "less" Black?  What shade of skin color do you draw the line, and no longer consider someone part of the Black "race?"

 

It will take me a moment to review the links to see the evidence for a genetic test for race.

 

That is not what I"m saying. I am saying that skin color is one of several aspects of race, but not the sole determining factor. There is not a single thing that determines phenotype (race), but numerous things. Chinese have a particular phenotype (race) but they lack melanin. The Twa look like Chinese people with melanin. They are two variations of a similar phenotype, one brown, one not brown. Race is a group of things that make up a certain look, such as the distinct look of Aborigines, brown skin, specific phenotype.

 

When I see Aborigines who have been diluted by one generation, it is still evident that they have carried over the aborigine phenotype (race), even though they are now mixed. I wouldn't even need DNA to distinguish them from other human phenotypes. If I see aborigine folks who are brothers and sisters, it wouldn't matter if one is slightly lighter or darker than the other, their race/phenotype would be evident. Doesn't matter that you and your sisters have varying skin colors, your phenotype, negroid, is still evident. Science can determine phenotype of bones and DNA is what determines the phenotype to begin with, even if we never pinpointed the marker for it. But they have. 

 

Like I wrote before, all cats are cats, just like all humans are humans, and genetically we can be identified as being human. But there IS a genetic difference in how cats look AND behave in their social environment. It is because of genetics why lions and tigers and panthers live in their own groups, almost never encroaching on their cat buddies with a different phenotype. There is a gene for our varying phenotypes (race). Again, try not to use the word race. They are really talking about phenotype and using the word race in a charged way to replace the very real phenotypes of various humans and all species. 

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Zaji I understand what you are saying (I've have heard from Pioneer and others). 

 

There is no gene for race. Now if you do not believe this, all of the opinions you form will be flawed, and nothing I say will make sense to you.

 

Saying there are numerous physical characteristics is no better than saying rce is a function of skin color.  Humanity is so diverse you will always find people who are Black but would fail your more complex "brown bag" test.

 

Of course there are genes (and environmental causes), which explain the differences in the way people look.  But people are not cats, unless you want to talk about humanity in terms of different breeds. Lion are as different from tigers and cats as humans are from bonobos and chimps, because all "Black" people and "white" people are all Homo spaiens.

 

Now, if we want to continue to use the word race to describe phenotypic differences between people fine.  I do it in the course of informal conversation myself, but I also have no problem acknowledging someone who presents as "white" as a Black person, because because given the history of rape in this country "Black: people are all colors of the spectrum.

 

This is perhaps one reason why "Afro-American" is a better term than "Black" to describe the so called Black American, particular ones descendant from enslaved Africans. Leonce and Pioneer use this term as well; I think for similar reasons.

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1 hour ago, Troy said:

Of course there are genes (and environmental causes), which explain the differences in the way people look. 

 

I believe it is well-documented that environment is factor in genetic mutation... the whole "Out of Africa" project details the mutation of the mitochondrial DNA to track how humans changed as they moved further away from the equator.  Geneticist classify modern humans in haplogroups to mark our movements around the world - "race" is never mentioned in the study but rather they identify the change in genetic code. 

Also @zaji points out the initial testing, the Cambridge Reference Sequence came a European woman and worked it's way back to Africa. Not all mtDNA results are derived from that test.  There are a few, one in use is the Yoruba mtDNA.

 

For example, my results came from FamilytreeDNA and they use(d) revised (rCRS ) and  RSRS  (Reconstructed Sapiens Reference Sequence)  The RSRS results are  based on the mitochondrial Eve's ancient genome.  

As I've mentioned here before, according to my results my haplogroup L3 is from Ethiopia   My halplogroup maternal ancestor was the progenitor of the Eurasian (European and Asian) haplogroup L, M,  who left Africa.

Today, they look different from Ancient Africans but that's due to their migration patterns.  If they came from the first woman in my line, my maternal ancestor  but left Africa this should stand to reason environment caused a mutation in their genetic code.  This would be the same way environment caused my genetic code to become different from the original modern human woman, mitochondrial Eve. I'm still her descendant but  my maternal ancestor's migration pattern caused my genes to mutate and for me to look different. 


  Also there was a recent article on early human - the "cheddar" man  who died about 10,000 years ago.  

 

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Scientists said yesterday they were surprised to discover that the earliest Briton would be considered ‘black’ if he lived today. The research suggests the first inhabitants of the British isles developed white skin later on than previously thought
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5362187/Social-media-meltdown-Brit-Cheddar-Man.html#ixzz56iYgNFv4 


But getting back to the thesis of this post, discussing what  "race" is or isn't" is actually trying to make sense of mentally-ill babblings.  We know there's no biological foundation for race.   In the same respect, there's no scientific basis for culture either.    Still I subscribe to what serves me - and that's doesn't mean I'm brainwashed - but rather I think  certain mental illnesses can be contagious.  Or borrowing Nietzsche phrase from  Beyond Good and Evil - 

  • He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
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