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Read other letters about this article
But we must examine our (and others') assumptions.
I agree with that.
We seem to be in a place of racial nihilism*. When pressed, very few people will actually stand up and say that they believe in the concept of race as it is articulated today, but very few are willing to incorporate that idea into their behavior and philosophy.
With race as religion, we seem to be a country where a large part of the atheists still go to church and speak as if god existed. I am trying to figure out who we don't want to upset.
I often use religion as a metaphor for race because I am fascinated with the idea of both religious and racial nihilism. I am somewhat sympathetic to the idea that sometimes you go to church on christmas when you visit your grandma and bite your tongue. It's christmas--does my grandma really need me to interrupt the dinner prayer with a speech on the FSM?
But when it comes to race--I am still trying to figure out who we don't want to upset. There seems to be the unspoken belief that if race isn't real then slavery was extra bad. If we say race isn't real then "black" people will really be pissed.
I am still trying to figure out who we don't want to upset.
How in the world we came up with a way to categorize humans based upon the assumption that different "races" either couldn't or wouldn't have sex with each other--is beyond me. How do we continue to keep a straight face with this absurdity?
We are country biting our tongue over christmas dinner. I am still trying to figure out who we don't want to upset.
*I am roughly stealing Nietzsche's definition of nihilism: To continue behaviors and beliefs once you have destroyed the underlying foundation for those behaviors and beliefs.
