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In some ways, it’s pretty complex.
I’m mixed. I pass as white, especially lately because of my medical situation over the last 20 years, but this issue has been near and dear to my heart.
I’ll try to keep my take brief
1) True: Race isn’t genetic. There’s not much to add to that. If it were, organ donation would be an entirely different function than it is right now (and there wouldn’t be a worldwide organ trade…).
2) Race is MORE than just cultural. There are physical characteristics that are intrinsic to the experience, that create exigencies, both create and remove possibilities and fundamentally CHANGE the human experience because those physical characteristics are viewed differently in a cultural AND social context. I am NOT speaking about Eugenics or any other pseudo-science that tries to establish a scientific basis for “race”. Rather, I’m speaking of race as a social and cultural construct based on physical traits and genealogy. Which may sound bad, but is pretty typical. “I’m half <insert “race” here> and one quarter…” How does anyone get to being Scandanavian? Chinese? Persian? Generally, one is born into these cultures. There has been a movement among adopted people to essentially adopt the culture of the parents if they choose. That’s an ongoing debate that I’m not going to get into, just wanted to acknowledge it. And, of course, there are exceptions to all this…which seems to be the focus now.
3) Race is for the most part assigned. THIS is controversial, but all too true. Many have said in the media that “race is self-identified”. I disagree as I’ll explain later. As a cultural and social phenomena, it’s been a real issue among light skinned African Americans and mixed race Americans who can “pass” for White to be in flux. Some have moved, disavowed family including darker siblings and parents and chosen to pass for white for the many reasons that might be desirable. Others have embraced their “blackness” and struggled with being “black enough” which a different facet of this same discussion. I can see how one can embrace who they ARE. A dark-skinned Sri Lankan may correct someone and say, “No. I’m not black. I’m Sri Lankan,” because black in the Unites States is a euphemism for an entirely different social and cultural grouping. But the key is the really crappy nature of this… externality. Social and cultural assignment is almost by nature external and as such, it’s how others see us. It’s one reason why “inclusive cultures” or cultures without assignment are so sought after by some.
4) There is just NO comparison to the Transgender community. Plain and simple, a transgender person is living a physically and cognitively disparate reality. Their gender doesn’t match their body. Moreover, their sexuality may OR MAY NOT match their cognitive reality. In other words, a transgender person may understand that they are a male. This person would by definition have a female body. However, if this transgender person is heterosexual, the attraction would be for women. That would put the person in what from the outside looks like a lesbian relationship, but is actually a straight relationship between a woman and a transgender person (obviously the physicality complicates things). This has nothing to do with anyone assigning anything. If a transgender person were teleported to another galaxy, none of their realities changes.
So, here’s my take in a nutshell. And this is brief for me as you all know.
I think the woman in question has issues that I won’t even try to deal with.
I think her individual issues cloud the ability to deal with the larger issues. If one wants to talk about her, it’s important to narrow any discussion to JUST her situation and restrict that discussion to her particular situation.
I think the genetics, eugenics, science and pseudo-science crowd should seriously shut the fuck up. If Eugenics didn’t die after WWII, we sure don’t need it sparking back up now because someone can read a few scanned papers on Wikipedia.
I think that because we try to assign mixed race people as ONE race rather than allowing mixed race people to be mixed, there are going to be problems. I’ve life experience in this area and I REALLY wish we could address mixed race people as MIXED while at the same time allowing for INCLUSION into their “component communities”. Thus, like me, I’m part White, a quarter Black and some part Native American. I see this not only for me, but for my kids. My youngest daughter clearly LOOKS mixed and she isn’t considered white by most people. My eldest daughter looks white and is considered white. My daughter doesn’t really have the choice to just go out into the world and say “I’m white. I’m black. I’m Native American. I embrace all of these,” and have them embrace her back. Well, the Native culture would and does. The black community is a mixed bag. It’s…complicated. The white community? Not so much. It’s pretty binary, a person either IS or IS NOT.
Thus, because of this, because of the mixed race dilemma which shouldn’t be the entirety of this discussion or define this issue, there is no definite answer. Well, there is and it’s inclusion… but that’s of those who are mixed and essentially create difficulties and exceptions for the basic assignations for the various cultures.
I do think the construct of race is more than just culture. The various common physical traits, whatever they may be, are an inextricable PART of that culture. Moreover, whether positively or negatively (usually negatively…let’s be honest), cultural and social assignations are NOT a matter of checking a box. Take our President. He’s half white. He could choose to say he’s white. He was raised by his white mother in Kansas along with his white grandparents. However, the social norm would be to say that he “looks” black, thus unless there’s a correction, he’s black. The President could check all the boxes he wanted, but it would be folly to seriously entertain him “embracing his Whiteness”.
Yes, there is a part of this that’s exclusionary with respect to white and it frustrates me to no end. As in the story posted above, there’s a purity aspect that creates a “white or other” rather than “white AND other” mentality.
For most of my life, I’ve struggled with self-assigning only to be rudely informed externally that, NO…., the outside… was taking care of that. As I’ve shared before, I’ve never “felt white” because I could see what the white experience looked like and got to experience most of it, but didn’t feel it internally. Plus, I’ve had store detectives follow me and people ask me in a tone that wasn’t positive, “you’re part black, aren’t you?” So, I’ve struggled with this issue my whole life.
I will use this example as a counter for those positing that folks can self-assign. Young African-American males absolutely can NOT self-assign as young white men. If “race” were TRULY something that could be self-assigned, young black males in poor neighborhoods all across this country could avoid profiling from police departments by self-assigning as white if they chose. They could improve their credit (the racist polices of the banking industry is pretty well known. My wife has a higher credit score than I do because I check “other” for my race and she checks “white” even though she has no income), they could make it easier to obtain housing and to get into college.
NONE of these things are options. Moreover, when the police looks at a young heavily melanin enriched American male… he’s likely profiled as being black, dangerous and a criminal. Thus, the farther this discussion goes from being academic and enters into the real world… to getting a home loan (a bank could sue you for checking the wrong box…try making that self-assignation argument in court. I wouldn’t), to dealing with law enforcement (the police department sure doesn’t seem to take much stock in self-assigning), to dealing with the job market… we see that self-assigning is ONLY about the meaningless gesture of checking the box. If it weren’t, a person could just say, “I’m white! Don’t shoot!” and as blatantly racist as that is, they could probably save their life in certain situations where especially black men are killed without a second thought. Buying a toy gun comes to mind…
So that’s it. We KNOW that race is a construct. And? Short of homogenization which I think would be horrible in just about every way possible, we’re left with all of these different cultures masquerading as “races”.
Ultimately, the way out will be when we learn that there’s ONE human race and that there are thousands of cultures that are different. Some are born into, some are entered into and hopefully we get to the point where none are assigned based on physical features.
By way of exception, here’s Josh Blue, comedian and African American. (American citizen born and raised a good chunk in Africa)
Here’s Barack Obama, President and of mixed race (white mother and black father)
Josh Blue jokes about being an African American. And while technically he IS an African American in the literal sense, he’s not part of that culture. He’s a damned funny comedian and his take on it is hysterical and I’d recommend a google of him because it’s worth it.
The only thing about this that really frustrates me is that the self-assigning advocates are going to great lengths to not justify Rachel Dolezal’s deception, but to somehow validate the question she raises. Bullshit. If this is really about the work she was doing, was it not possible to do it in her former guise? Could she not do it without the subterfuge? If not, then that’s an issue for the NAACP and the African American community to look at. I know it’s not true as an absolute because my grandfather who’s Native American and Pennsylvania Dutch was one of 14 founding members of the Easton, PA chapter of the NAACP in 1942 and the only “white” man of those founders. So, the NAACP is not and has not been an exclusively black organization. I don’t believe it has become LESS inclusive since 1942.
So, again the question, is it about the work or the guise? Because if it was about the work, my grandfather did work for the NAACP as a white man in 1942 married to a black woman raising mixed kids. He went on to work quite a long time for Bethlehem Steel, not exactly a bastion of tolerance. She could have done the work she did as she was. Moreover, I don’t see any serious effort to discredit her work (then again, I haven’t gone looking for it). I see her deception being called out. Thus, if it’s about the guise, then deception to be part of any community or culture is just false. She can say she’s black all the live long day, but at the end of the day, she can go back to being white and check another box.
Sports is the crucible of human virtue. The distillate remains are human vice.
I don’t think that point can be driven home hard enough.
If our OL RUN blocks well, which should be about 50% of the play calls, then you have the Play Action passes which I presume is 33% of the remaining 50%, thus 17% rounding up, then optimistically, the amount of Run or Run Affected blocking is in effect 67% of the time.
That leaves only 33% of snaps where an opposing D can expect to be able to purely get off and rush. Combine that with the uncertainty of down, distance and situational football and it makes it hard for a defense to really pin their ears back.
THIS PLAN CAN BE DEVASTATING. As the Eagles proved in 2013.
The KEY is the RUN BLOCKING of the OL. If the OL blocks well and the D has to focus on the run essentially 67% of the time knowing that a run play typically gains near 5 ypa and they have to play COMMITTED run D because big gains are a very real possibility (hence the NEED for a RB like Gurley), then the OL will face a DL that won’t have the same “get off” that DLs do when facing pass happy teams. That will allow rookies and less than all-pros to play effectively within the confines of a relatively simple system because the focus will be on execution.
Again, we saw that in how they drafted. They chose guys who showed that they knew how to execute, especially Havenstein who led the way on most of Gordon’s big runs at Wisconsin AND was extremely effective in pass pro only having one holding penalty all year and giving up zero sacks.
Sports is the crucible of human virtue. The distillate remains are human vice.
