Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 14:52:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom
Subject: Letter to the Editor
Why is it that everybody in this country confuses skin color with race? Here’s a surprise for everybody – Skin color is the LEAST deciding factor in determing race. Race has to do with physical features such as nose shape, eye shape, height of cheekbones, lip thickness and shape, and hair texture. So how do we define race, you ask? Well, there are three main races of the world: Caucasoid (Caucasion), Negroid, and Mongoloid. Caucasoids include peoples indigenous to Europe, North Africa, West Asia, and India. Although people from these regions may range from light to brown skin color, you must look at the similarities in their facial features. The next group, the Negroids, include peoples indigenous to central and southern Africa. Finally, the third group, the Mongoloids, include peoples indigenous to central and east Asia. In case you were wondering, the peoples indigenous to South and North America, otherwise known as Native Americans, are a subgroup of Mongoloids. If, for some reason, you don’t believe me, look at the similarites in facial features and hair. Now to answer my question posed at the beginning – Why does everybody confuse skin color with race? The answer: We have become overly politically correct. Do I expect everybody to start calling themselves Caucasoids, Negroids, and Mongoloids? Absolutely not (Although the term “Caucasion” is still widely used today). However, using these terms sure would cause a lot less confusion. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Black, white, yellow, and brown are not races – they’re colors. Asian and Mexican are not races either – they’re countries. In fact, it is truly idiotic and lazy of the United States Census Bureau to put all people from Latin America into one group (“Hispanic” or “Latino”) when people from Mexico and Puerto Rico have virtually nothing in common in terms of race, food, music, and overall culture. The only thing they share is that they both speak Spanish. That’s all for now – I’m tired of typing and it’s nice outside.
Editor: Regardless of what is “correct” or “incorrect” – why do we have to have labels in the first place?
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 06:42:18 -0500
From: A.D. Powell
Subject: Reply to “Tom” on the myth of “3 races”
Reader “Tom” is totally wrong when he promotes the myth of “three great races.” In my review of “Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race,” (http://www.webcom.com/intvoice/powell11.html), I go into great detail to show that what we now call “ethnicities” or “nationalities” used to be called “races.” It should be obvious that it is totally idiotic to say that a black-skinned Tamil in India and a Nordic Swede both belong to the same “race” when the same people who defend the myth of the nearly black “caucasian” won’t defend a part-African European accused of “passing as white.” The fact is that you can take any quality and create a “race” in the mind. Likewise, there will always be exceptions to any “racial” rule you create. The Third Reich gassed blond Jews and made alliances with darker Italians and the very NON-Aryan Japanese.