4 ms·
Well, like I said. Black is a race, not necessarily a skin tone but mostly identified as a complex and arbitrary delineation of class, nationality, ethnicity, a
by SolaceQuantum 10y ago
Well, like I said. Black is a race, not necessarily a skin tone but mostly identified as a complex and arbitrary delineation of class, nationality, ethnicity, and general skin tone as the easiest identifier but not necessarily the qualifier. I have a white friend who's tan as hell, and studied under a woman from South Africa who was about as tan as my friend. The woman was considered a black woman, while my friend was considered a white man, even though their skin tones were similar.
Life is full of such arbitrary nuance and complexity.
- weberc2 10y agoI wasn't speaking about skin tone, but also physical features indicative of African descent. At any rate, in the United States (which is the context of the holiday), class, nationality, and ethnicity don't contribute to perceptions of race; it's effectively the presence or absence of indigenous African physical traits, skin-tone being but one example. Perhaps class, nationality, and ethnicity could be used in 'tie-breaker' cases where race isn't visibly apparent, but that's the extent.