Are you sitting down? There’s racism in the royal family!

@hightor,

White people have the option of not having to consider skin color. Others have to deal with a color conscious world. It is not baggage we choose.

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@hightor,

People classify people racially not just by their skin coloring, though. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach began the "racial" classification of humanity with his On the Varieties of Mankind. Peoples' ideas of "race" largely correspond to Blumenbach's classifications.

And, sure, "race" is a cultural construct, but then again, I don't think Derek Chauvin would have murdered anyone outside of his cultural constructs of "Black" (Blumenbach refers to it as "Ethiopean variety") the way he did George Floyd.

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The next time I get stopped for being black while living, I’ll be sure to instruct the cop that he’s allowing his actions to be dictated by a social construct. That’ll straighten him out.

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@InfraBlue,

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People classify people racially not just by their skin coloring...

True, but it's pretty common for people to refer to Blumenbach's classifications of skin color — white, red, black, brown, yellow — as opposed to his racial distinctions based on craniometry.

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@snood,

Quote:

The next time I get stopped for being black while living, I’ll be sure to instruct the cop that he’s allowing his actions to be dictated by a social construct.

That would be neither a prudent nor a logical response to my point. I was describing a cultural phenomenon, not prescribing a course of action.

I was making an observation about the inaccurate way we assign people to "races" based on the color of their skin and expressing my hope that we eventually outgrow this vestige of tribalism. I mentioned the fact that there are people labeled "white" who have darker skin than people labeled as "black". I never suggested that these distinctions aren't operative in our culture, that they don't have negative repercussions, or the consequences of this ingrained habitual classification should be ignored.

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That’ll straighten him out.

In my experience, it's best to answer the cop's questions politely and say as little as possible. The particular dynamics of such a confrontation don't facilitate sociological discussions or challenges to long held beliefs. I suggest leaving discussions like this to message boards.

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@hightor,

<edit>
I wrote this prior to reading your last response. So, while my comment that you aren’t addressing me no longer applies, my question about your awareness (or lack thereof) of your own privilege stands.

I notice that you are not responding directly to me about this, even though in your responses to others you have made reference to my responses to you.

You express disdain at the absurdity of skin-color classification. I say that dealing with race as if it’s an intellectual exercise is a luxury- a privilege, if you will - for only white people to indulge. And I say that’s precisely because they don’t have to experience the consequences of having society at large judge them by skin color.

I can’t help wondering now if you are not too shallow or supercilious to even realize that.

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@hightor,

Along with craniometry, he had physical descriptions of his five major racial "varieties", as well.

Quote:

Caucasian variety. Colour white, cheeks rosy; hair brown or chestnut-coloured . . . face
oval, straight, its parts moderately defined . . . To this first variety belong the inhabitants
of Europe . . . and those of Eastern Asia, as far as the river Obi, the Caspian Sea and the
Ganges; and lastly, those of Northern Africa.

Mongolian variety. Colour yellow; hair black, stiff, straight and scanty; head almost
square; face broad, at the same time flat and depressed . . . This variety comprehends the
remaining inhabitants of Asia . . . and the Finnish populations of the cold part of Europe,
the Lapps, &c. and the race of Esquimaux, so widely diffused over North America, from
Behring’s straits to the inhabited extremity of Greenland.

Ethiopian variety. Colour black; hair black and curly; head narrow, compressed at the
sides; forehead knotty, uneven . . . To this variety belong all the Africans, except those of
the north.

American variety. Copper-coloured; hair black, stiff, straight and scanty; forehead short .
. . This variety comprehends the inhabitants of America except the Esquimaux.

Malay variety. Tawny-coloured; hair black, soft, curly, thick and plentiful; head
moderately narrowed . . . This last variety includes the islanders of the Pacific Ocean,
together with the inhabitants of the Marianne, the Philippine, the Molucca and the Sunda
Islands, and of the Malayan peninsula.

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@InfraBlue,

Interestingly, he was not a proponent of racial superiority.

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@snood,

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You express disdain at the absurdity of skin-color classification.

Given the destructive effects of racial discrimination the practice is worse than absurd.

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I say that dealing with race as if it’s an intellectual exercise is a luxury- a privilege, if you will - for only white people to indulge.

If that were the total extent of my feelings about skin color in our culture and racism in our society, yes, that would be pretty shallow. I only raised it as a tangential point because, as a person of mixed racial ancestry, it's something I have done some thinking about. It's aspirational — as well as being an indictment of a particularly ugly aspect of the human imagination.

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Harry and Meghan expressly said they were asked how dark they thought Archie was going to be.

The best response to the people who asked that question was provided by Dr. King:

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I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

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@hightor,

Damn, man. Are you serious? There’s trying to be aspirational, and then there’s just talking ridiculous ****.
You just suggested that someone quote Dr King to the royals who brought up Archie’s skin color.

And as for your “mixed ancestry”...
To be completely accurate, there are no pure breeds of humans anymore. Especially in the US. Rape of slave women took care of that.
But no one would never mistake you for a person of color.l, would they? And we were talking about racism related to skin tone.

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Are you sitting down? There’s racism in the royal family!

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