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The thing you have to remember is that race, as a social construct, only exists as a form of oppressive categorization. It's never, historically, been used as
by Zetice 3y ago
The thing you have to remember is that race, as a social construct, only exists as a form of oppressive categorization. It's never, historically, been used as merely "identification" or whatever else categorization might be used for in some benign way. It's always a weapon.
So yeah, culturally it exists. Biologically it does not exist, however.
And I have zero clue why CRT is on your mind here, or why you think it's "reductionist", and in fact would apply to various "white" people through history. Do you think CRT wouldn't apply to the Irish in the 1820s?
- rayiner 3y ago[flagged]
- Zetice 3y agoCRT is not reductionist, it's observational; the white/black oppressor/oppressed dichotomy is how racism has played out in the United States in the 20th and 21st century. To be blunt, the US didn't institutionally endorse the enslavement of millions of Italians for hundreds of years. The black/white conflict is different from any other racial conflict in America.
- rayiner 3y agoYou’re agreeing with me. > The black/white conflict is different from any other racial conflict in America. More precisely, the conflict between British and Dutch enslavers and their descendants and enslaved Africans and their descendants is different from any other racial conflict in America. The ordinary prejudice faced by everyone from Germans to Vietnamese to Guatemalans is not merely different in degree, but different in kind. If you limit CRT to enslavers and their descendants, and the enslaved and their descendants, I agree CRT is observational rather than reductionist. But it hasn’t been so limited. “White” has been generalized to encompass Italians, Irish, etc., and “black” has been generalized into “people of color.” And it’s that generalization that I’m calling reductionist and nonsensical.
- Zetice 3y agoNo, not more specifically between British and Dutch, between Americans and Black Americans. It's not ancient history, it's what happened to your parents grandparents.
- rayiner 3y agoYes it’s specifically about the British and Dutch. For most white Americans, their “parents grandparents” were in Ireland, Sweden, Italy, etc. Out of the folks who were here before the 20th century, the largest fraction is Germans who came here in poverty and had nothing to do with slavery other than fighting to end it.