4 ms·
Why do you need a race?
by guerrilla 5y ago
Why do you need a race?
- nefitty 5y agoAt the very least, representation in government. People who share my ethnicity have unique social problems that don't apply to any other "race". I don't need a race, but the people who share my background need to be discernible on a census.
- stavros 5y agoBut you just said "people who share my ethnicity", which has nothing to do with race. People of any race can share your ethnicity. Is a black Mexican closer in culture to a Nigerian or to a Mexican?
- nefitty 5y agoI'm not sure you understand how governments work. That's ok. On a census, there's no box to check off every strain that makes up my ethnicity. There's a box that says "Hispanic". I'm being descriptive, not prescriptive.
- stavros 5y agoI'm not sure I understand how the US government works. Your experience is far from universal.
- nefitty 5y agoInteresting comment to get downvoted on...
- nec4b 5y agoWhy do you need a name, a surname, a name for the place you come from,...? Because giving something a name helps us differentiate between things.
- guerrilla 5y agoA name names an individual, a "race" doesn't name anything but an arbitrary set of genetic and cultural traits (opposed to an actual ethnicity.)
- nec4b 5y agoAnd why can't an arbitrary set of genetic and cultural traits have a name? Everything else in this universe can be broken down to an arbitrary set of something. Why for e.g. call somebody an American when it's only a person living withing arbitrary lines on map?
- guerrilla 5y agoBecause some such groups of people tend to actually have little in common and don't want to be lumped in with each other or be represented together.
- nec4b 5y agoI'm sorry but that is a really weird argument. Who are those groups of people who want us to pretend there are no similarities or differences between them and other groups of people?
- guerrilla 5y agoCalling it "pretend" is both dismissive and begs the question. The people you want to call "Hispanics" are ethnically rather diverse, far from homogeneous. The similarities you see originate in ignorance. Mexicans aren't Columbians, Brazillians aren't Portuguese and all of these countries are home to many different ethnic groups with their own histories, languages, cultures and genetics.