{"id":7769,"date":"2002-11-15T22:45:00","date_gmt":"2002-11-15T22:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=7769"},"modified":"2021-06-29T04:27:41","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T04:27:41","slug":"lte-on-race-and-biology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2002\/11\/15\/lte-on-race-and-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"LTE: On Race and Biology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: Fri, November 15, 2002 10:45 pm
From: Kwame X
Subject: Letter to the Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When will you undertsand \u2018race\u2019, or what ever word you think is more appropriate, does matter. There are obvious differences b\/w us, even if you think these differences r superficial\/insignificant. You can\u2019t just simply IGNORE them. I think the \u2018race\u2019 that you are arguing doesn\u2019t exist is different then the race everyone else is talking about. How you look does and always will matter. That\u2019s human nature, how you look matters, it affects how others view you and how you view yourself. People differentiate from people who look different then them. This becomes a problem when they become prejudiced or look down on other people who look different then them. I am not arguing that we are a completely different species, or completely different biologically, which \u2018race is not a bioloigical concept\u2019 scientists keep insisting is not so WHICH I\u2019M NOT EVEN ARGUING IN THE FIRST PLACE. Human beings are human beings, and there is no way in reality you can just IGNORE the fact that someone looks drasticly different then you, it might be superficial, but PEOPLE are like this, we are not robots. This is not just a \u2018social construct\u2019. Race was not \u2018invented\u2019 in the 17th century, if you live in Africa, or Europe or wherever before slavery\/colonization, and everyone looks like you, obviously you\u2019r not going to think about \u2018race\u2019, but when you are suddenly encountered with people who look drasticly different then you, then it will matter.( it won\u2019t necessarily be a bad thing, but it\u2019s not like you literally won\u2019t NOTICE the differences). If hypothetically, there was a lost continent and it was inhabited by green people, humans just like us, you can\u2019t say it wouldn\u2019t matter at all. You said before that people would insist \u2018race\u2019 existed because \u201cthey could \u2018see\u2019 the \u2018races’\u201d, because this matters to HUMANS, and always will, being VISUAL is not something that was \u2018invented\u2019 in the 17th century. People feel different when they are surrounded by people who look similar to them and then by people who look drasticly different then them. This has nothing to do with any politcal ideaology or any \u201csocial construct\u201d but I, and I think many people, feel comfortable and associate a sense of familiarity\/home with other people who look like you.Is something wrong with me? If this is superficial, then, in REALITY, I guess people are naturally superficial to some extent. Just because you personally feel we shoudln\u2019t distinguish ourselves on these lines, doesn\u2019t mean that is a FACT everyone has to EMBRACE. I wouldn\u2019t want to live in a place where everyone was green or blue, no disrespect to them if they were green or blue people, I think it\u2019s NORMAL and HEALTHY to feel comfortable around others who look like me( or have some others who look like me around). There is not a human being on this planet where looks do not matter AT ALL( unless they\u2019re literally blind maybe), at least to some extent. And even after this, we are still a completely different people culturally. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but don\u2019t force your own \u201cwe are the world\u201d views on everyone and else and call that science. Let me speak how I honestly feel, the idea of living in a \u2018color blind society\u2019 where \u201cwe are the world\u201d reigns and I can\u2019t distinguish myself as a proud Black man( not better or worse then anyone else, just different) makes me so sick to my stomach to the point of vomitting. I don\u2019t want to be viewed as \u2018no different\u2019 then whyte people.That disgusts me. This is just how I feel. \u201drace\u201d is not something that you will teach away as \u2018unscientific\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: Fri, November 15, 2002 10:45 pmFrom: Kwame XSubject: Letter to the Editor When will you undertsand \u2018race\u2019, or what ever word you think is more appropriate, does matter. There are obvious differences b\/w...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":7987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-7769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reader-forum","tag-racial-classifications"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-21j","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Letters-to-the-Editor.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7770,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7769\/revisions\/7770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}