Subject: Re: On interracial relationships, or anything
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 17:11:42 GMT

Susan Cohen (zenda@smart.net) wrote:

: > Racial classification is "valid" only in the sense that there is
: > usually near-unanimity about how any one of its members is
: > classified.

: "Near unanimity?" You can't even get that on this board!

Unanimity about what though?  Are we talking about the same thing?

: > This ability of society to so classify has been
: > valid in this sense, for millenia.

: Lots of things have been "valid for millenia" that aren't necessarily so - &
: specifically in respect to race.

You left out the important qualifier "in this sense".

: For example, to look at me, you'd think I was white. To look at my ancestry,
: you'd only convince yourself further. But to those whom race matters the most,
: I'm a Jew- despite it's *not* being a race, &, in fact, never having been one
: (just a subset of a race).

So you are white *and* Jewish.
For some purposes the one, and for other 
purposes the other.  In *this* society.

: And who determines/d that we are/were a race, & that such a designation is/has
: been valid for millenia? The same people who decide "white" & "black": society
: at large.

: So, I suppose I agree with you in general, just not in specific.

I see the first, not the second.


	 

Contents | Previous | Next