For those who insist on ignoring race, here's some racial food for thought that I hope you will take a moment to consider.
Why is it that we can categorize people by age, sex, disability, income, etc., but when it comes to race, race is all of a sudden some sort of taboo, something "we need to finally move on from" in a supposed post-racial society? Sure all these categorizations of people are "human," regardless of race or income or any sort of background -- but their experiences and situations growing up are not all the same, and that's the key point.
That statistical correlations exist with race across the spectrum in so many vital facets of American life means that it's a meaningful idea. To deny the existence of race as it affects people's everyday experience and situations denies that race is a factor that actually matters. And that's a problem, because it does matter. And it's more than just data, as meaningful as data is. You can simply ask a minority about their personal experiences growing up in America to learn about some of the things a minority may go through.
Also consider that there is an inherent bias here in HN since it's reasonable to say that most of us come from privileged backgrounds, regardless of race. Always consider the background of any minority who dismisses race as an issue. They only speak to their personal experience and it may not be indicative of the mounds of minorities who organize and find common ground in their situations and experiences.
And I'm not here to argue necessarily over what "race" means, its definition or its construction and meaning over time, because that's not the issue I'm trying to bring up. It's clear to anyone with common sense that this construction of "race" that we perceive still matters, and it has always mattered for centuries in countless civilizations and societies, though how it plays out may not be universal.
I understand that it's not easy. If we could ignore race completely somehow, in theory, perhaps we really could whisk away many of the problems that it brings. In some sense, race is unique from other categorizations of people because of how fluid its definition is, how subjective race really is. Yet, it amazes me how with something as complex an issue as poverty or economic growth, we can take great measures to study it and analyze its history and come up with all sorts of policies to tackle its many dimensions... but when it comes to race or racism, we think we can solve the issue by dismissing it. "Let's just forget about race, it will go away!" Does that simple diagnosis really make sense for one of our oldest social ills?
Many of us don't want big brother meddling with affairs they need not stick their noses in, but even if you hate the government, I think we could all agree that if the government were to disappear tomorrow, the world would collapse. I say this again to point to the complexity of race issues, that you simply just can't throw the idea away and expect the issues to fix themselves. At the very least, it's something that deserves to be treated with seriousness, whose intricacies need to be appreciated to be understood. The ability to simply ignore an issue or approach it shallowly because it may not affect you is what real privilege is, not the petty term that it is unfortunately so often thrown towards white males or whichever privileged group is in question.
One last word, which truly applies to issues beyond race: If you feel uncomfortable talking about race in this post-racial world you envision, then I'm sorry but it's not about your personal feelings towards race, when there are people out there facing real problems that deal with race. And it's great if you "personally don't see race," but unfortunately that's not the experience of many others, or the people born into a situation that is a product of systematic racism.
I encourage you to step away from those personal feelings and your worldview and to instead consider the lives of others, at least for a moment.
Why is it that we can categorize people by age, sex, disability, income, etc., but when it comes to race, race is all of a sudden some sort of taboo, something "we need to finally move on from" in a supposed post-racial society? Sure all these categorizations of people are "human," regardless of race or income or any sort of background -- but their experiences and situations growing up are not all the same, and that's the key point.
That statistical correlations exist with race across the spectrum in so many vital facets of American life means that it's a meaningful idea. To deny the existence of race as it affects people's everyday experience and situations denies that race is a factor that actually matters. And that's a problem, because it does matter. And it's more than just data, as meaningful as data is. You can simply ask a minority about their personal experiences growing up in America to learn about some of the things a minority may go through.
Also consider that there is an inherent bias here in HN since it's reasonable to say that most of us come from privileged backgrounds, regardless of race. Always consider the background of any minority who dismisses race as an issue. They only speak to their personal experience and it may not be indicative of the mounds of minorities who organize and find common ground in their situations and experiences.
And I'm not here to argue necessarily over what "race" means, its definition or its construction and meaning over time, because that's not the issue I'm trying to bring up. It's clear to anyone with common sense that this construction of "race" that we perceive still matters, and it has always mattered for centuries in countless civilizations and societies, though how it plays out may not be universal.
I understand that it's not easy. If we could ignore race completely somehow, in theory, perhaps we really could whisk away many of the problems that it brings. In some sense, race is unique from other categorizations of people because of how fluid its definition is, how subjective race really is. Yet, it amazes me how with something as complex an issue as poverty or economic growth, we can take great measures to study it and analyze its history and come up with all sorts of policies to tackle its many dimensions... but when it comes to race or racism, we think we can solve the issue by dismissing it. "Let's just forget about race, it will go away!" Does that simple diagnosis really make sense for one of our oldest social ills?
Many of us don't want big brother meddling with affairs they need not stick their noses in, but even if you hate the government, I think we could all agree that if the government were to disappear tomorrow, the world would collapse. I say this again to point to the complexity of race issues, that you simply just can't throw the idea away and expect the issues to fix themselves. At the very least, it's something that deserves to be treated with seriousness, whose intricacies need to be appreciated to be understood. The ability to simply ignore an issue or approach it shallowly because it may not affect you is what real privilege is, not the petty term that it is unfortunately so often thrown towards white males or whichever privileged group is in question.
One last word, which truly applies to issues beyond race: If you feel uncomfortable talking about race in this post-racial world you envision, then I'm sorry but it's not about your personal feelings towards race, when there are people out there facing real problems that deal with race. And it's great if you "personally don't see race," but unfortunately that's not the experience of many others, or the people born into a situation that is a product of systematic racism.
I encourage you to step away from those personal feelings and your worldview and to instead consider the lives of others, at least for a moment.