From a forum discussion at One Drop Black: zenpoet2 said:
"No, the question isn't when will blacks stop being black…it is when will whites stop being white."
Everyone needs to stop being a "race" and embrace their individuality. To claim that so-called "whites" (a falsely applied inaccurate junk science label) must stop being "white" while so-called "blacks" (another falsely applied inaccurate junk science label) will continue being "black" is a bit of hypocrisy. Any system which requires one "side" to cede something another "side" will not, is doomed to failure. zenpoet2 said:
"Stop excepting the priviledge and advantages you know society grants you for having white skin."
Given that I work in excess of 50 hours a week, I'm wondering exactly how much my privilege is worth in monetary terms. I can't seem to pay my bills with it. It doesn't put shoes on my "biracial" child's feet or food in his mouth. It doesn't allow my "black" wife to stay home eating bon-bons all day, instead of working 40+ hours a week herself.
When I get my "white skin privilege" check in the mail, I'll feel more privileged – and by the way, my "white" skin is a phenotype, but not my "racial" identification, as I am a multi-generational "multiracial" individual as these arbitrarily established "racial" classifications are used.
When I can walk through southeast DC while holding my "black" wife's hand and NOT get accosted, I'll feel more privileged. When someone can pull my grandfather's dead and rotting carcass from the ground, reconstruct the back of his skull and brain and breathe life back into him (victim in an "interracial" murder/armed robbery), I'll feel more privileged. zenpoet2 said:
"Blacks didn't make the one drop rule, whites did. There was no advantage for us to so."
Actually, political leaders who were so-called "white" according the inaccurate and arbitrarily created "racial" classifications created the one-drop rule – not "whites" as you stated in the collective. I don't believe in group guilt or group innocence, only individual responsibility for individual actions. "Whites" as a whole did nothing with regard to the one-drop rule. Specific "whites" in power, however, instituted the one-drop rule. That said, while "blacks" did not institute the one-drop rule, many so-called "blacks" revel in pushing this rule down the throats of self-identified "multiracial" individuals who happen to have partial African ancestry. "White" politicians created the rule, and today many hateful "whites" and many hateful "blacks" both use it as a weapon against "multiracial" individuals. This is not mere conjecture on my part, but my firsthand observations from a decade of direct advocacy on the issue. This entry also posted at One Drop Black.
Individual accountability is how people can start seeing themselves as
individuals and not as one particular group/collective. On the other hand,
I identify myself as a multiracial individual who would like to see further
multiculturalism promoted in our society. There also needs to be official
recognition of a multiracial classification on the census and also in
the social spheres of American society. Moreover, the perceived racial groups should
interact more on an intimate social level outside of work. If we???re going
to identify ourselves as being part of certain groups let us do this but there
also needs to be a genuine engagement of all of these distinct groups to represent
real multiculturalism. Although diversity and individuality has its positives, and
at this time should be respected and maintained, in the end we???re all but of one
race and that???s the human race.
5/6/2005 17:27:00