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White Cop Who Finds He Has African Ancestry Sues City, Chief Over Racism

I'm thinking in my head things that are never obvious...

but this guy just had a huge identity crisis. he has been white his whole life until some thing on the Internet said naw, you're not. He is being treated as if he were 100% black by white people around him, down to every epithet they can throw at him. He lost his white identity. well, can he try going to identify as black? but he doesn't look it. can he work on doing a reverse Michael Jackson? will he ever be accepted by any group? where does this guy fit in now? who accepts him as a part of their group? and don't tell me "the human race"...that's bullshit. everyone has a group identity. this guy, however, doesn't seem to have one, and it must be jarring.

I ask these questions because I really don't know how people react to this. and it's also funny being called a racist almost instantaneously because I ask questions.

You are severely overthinking man. His white identity isn't completely erased he still passes as fully white from the one picture we seen of him. What he does have is a better perspective on racism found within his police force and community. One should hope he will use this experiance after this event passes to support the black community in his area and stand up to racism. Also as repeated before Blackface is never OK.
 
This has never really made sense to me though like, there are certain things that are definitely genetic that are tied to race right? Like skin color is definitely genetic.

I know there's not like an actual "white" race or a "black" race but there are genetic attributes that are tied to race no?

Not really race in itself is a social construct what these services look for is genes (Being very generic as im not biologists) that are found in communities around the globe and it will tell you broadly where your ancestors came from by which genes you share with speicific population groups. Some of these services are also I believe tied to family databases and can't find close relatives of yours but Im not quite sure how that aspect works.
 
Not really race in itself is a social construct what these services look for is genes (Being very generic as im not biologists) that are found in communities around the globe and it will tell you broadly where your ancestors came from by which genes you share with speicific population groups. Some of these services are also I believe tied to family databases and can't find close relatives of yours but Im not quite sure how that aspect works.
Yeah I've done an ancestry.com one before I think it went by my family IIRC

also - what does "race is a social construct" actually mean? If it's not something in your genetics, what is it?
 

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
This has never really made sense to me though like, there are certain things that are definitely genetic that are tied to race right? Like skin color is definitely genetic.

I know there's not like an actual "white" race or a "black" race but there are genetic attributes that are tied to race no?
Race is 100% made up. Just this past month there was a story of biological twins who had different phenotype expressions. One is white looking and the other mixed. How are they different races?
 
Race is 100% made up. Just this past month there was a story of biological twins who had different phenotype expressions. One is white looking and the other mixed. How are they different races?

So it's like how Italian people and Irish people didn't used to be considered white, and then at some point white people decided they could be white because reasons?
 
Oh, yeah, this thread. Maybe I'll check back in to see what people are saying about the sto-





















tenor.gif


Reading through the replies, I was halfway tempted to try and play off my original post as a joke as some people assumed, but I'll try and do the honourable thing and accept the pummelling for my apparent benightedness.

Up until I checked out this story, I have to confess that I had honestly never heard of Roots, nor about its subsequent adaptations! For what it's worth, I'm in my twenties and live in England and was never exposed to neither the book nor the 1970's mini-series, not even as a literature student, but clearly, that's not much of an excuse given its apparent cultural impact around the world. I simply assumed the officer in question was making some kind of strangely obscure literary reference in reference to some random novel I'd never heard about. I'm especially ashamed given that I'm now reading up on it and that it's apparently one of the most seminal literary works in US history. Please forgive me!

Does the 1970s series still hold up? I might check it out if I can find it somewhere.

This was very classy, especially as you could have lied and pretended it was all an elaborate gag post like the "I'm an expert on Japanese culture" guy did.
 
Yeah I've done an ancestry.com one before I think it went by my family IIRC

also - what does "race is a social construct" actually mean? If it's not something in your genetics, what is it?

Ill give you a basic gist before elizabethian england it was assumed africans were black because of the sun in africa but after some came to england and other placeses in europe and their children where still dark skinned it was quite a shock to the people. It was than assumed that they were cursed somehow. Eventually that train of thought lead to certain groups of human being considered less human than others. Since they were subhumans they could now be used as slaves in the newly discovered americas as a willing workforce is hard to come by. The rest you probably know.
 
Ill give you a basic gist before elizabethian england it was assumed africans were black because of the sun in africa but after some came to england and other placeses in europe and their children where still dark skinned it was quite a shock to the people. It was than assumed that they were cursed somehow. Eventually that train of thought lead to certain groups of human being considered less human than others. Since they were subhumans they could now be used as slaves in the newly discovered americas as a willing workforce is hard to come by. The rest you probably know.
Hmm, but that's a thing *based on* race isn't it? Maybe I don't know what race actually means. Are race and ethnicity the same thing...?
 
Honestly none of them are very good if you want to know your ethnicity. They aren't quite scams, but they are incredibly misleading about what the test shows.

Ethnicity and Race are not genetic. Thinking they are lead to some pretty horrible ideas in the early 20th century.
ugh, if they are misleading products I won't want to waste my time and money on them. what is the best alternative?
I like ancestry.com but never use 23andme but i have hear good things about it. But ancestry is really cheap it's only about £53 pound in the uk.
so they're essentially the same and alternative products, just different companies?
 

Setsuna

Member
I kind of hope he wins the suit.
But I kind of hope he doesn't.

On one hand it will make the officers in the precinct think about their actions, or at least highlight the problem that black people have been speaking on since FOR-FUCKING-EVER.
On the other, if he doesn't win, it will show the officer that is suing a small taste of how black people feel when we face Injustice​.

you say this like hes been overly oppressive to black people until recently
 
Hmm, but that's a thing *based on* race isn't it? Maybe I don't know what race actually means. Are race and ethnicity the same thing...?

Race was a way to categorize people by broad visually differences that came about because of stuff I mentioned above.Ethnicity isnt race it's a whole bunch of stuff from nation of origin, language , traditions and etc. Its what seperates a englishman from a frenchman and so on.
 

Izuna

Banned
I am kind of curious though, what is the threshold for being considered a black person?

Like, Obama was definitely our first black president and he was half white.

Is just kinda based on how like...everyone else treats you or considers you? Is there an appearance aspect to it? I know I've read some stuff before that even amongst black people, even some light skinned black sometimes have an easier time in some regards?

Depends.

Are they generally liked?

Race was a way to categorize people by broad visually differences that came about because of stuff I mentioned above.Ethnicity isnt race it's a whole bunch of stuff from nation of origin, language , traditions and etc. Its what seperates a englishman from a frenchman and so on.

depends on which country you are from. Ethnicity is mostly synonymous with race here in the UK.
 

The Kree

Banned
So it's like how Italian people and Irish people didn't used to be considered white, and then at some point white people decided they could be white because reasons?

The reason was that the English were afraid there was going to be an uprising. The Irish and Italians were given land, money, and status to stay calm. They worked the fields with Africans up until then.
 
Race was a way to categorize people by broad visually differences that came about because of stuff I mentioned above.Ethnicity isnt race it's a whole bunch of stuff from nation of origin, language , traditions and etc. Its what seperates a englishman from a frenchman and so on.
Oh shit okay I think I get it then, race is more like physical appearance and then ethnicity is cultural?

For example, why say like an African person and a Dominican person are both considered black even though they're completely different people?
 
Depends.

Are they generally liked?



depends on which country you are from. Ethnicity is mostly synonymous with race here in the UK.

Yeah in Europe Ethnicity and Race gets very mix so You will have for example a person who is Dutch complain about racism from a British man because of prejudice reasulting from country of origin.
 

Izuna

Banned
Oh shit okay I think I get it then, race is more like physical appearance and then ethnicity is cultural?

For example, why say like an African person and a Dominican person are both considered black even though they're completely different people?

You're on the right track, but we are all completely different people :3

and to go further, you can be so mixed, society doesn't have a category for you yet. I guess for some, "mixed" is a category but it not like a Venn diagram. As far as others are concerned, they care about what you look like for guessing your "race", whereas on the personal level you can identify with whatever you like.

Though mixed people are more likely to be aware that race really doesn't mean shit.
 
Oh shit okay I think I get it then, race is more like physical appearance and then ethnicity is cultural?

For example, why say like an African person and a Dominican person are both considered black even though they're completely different people?

Yep, But also remember ethnicity isnt tied to race so A person who is Asian could also consider themselves British. But beware of the situation I mentioned above when dealing with Europe example.
 

Xe4

Banned
The one drop rule is still a thing in 2017 ? Why am i not surprised ?
Yes, it's rediculous. Fist thing I thought of as well.
Hmm, but that's a thing *based on* race isn't it? Maybe I don't know what race actually means. Are race and ethnicity the same thing...?
Race is smething that is *literally* skin deep. If the last few millimeters of your body has a darker pigmentation, you're black. If not you're white or mixed race. That's literally as far as it goes.

Race was a system created during Victorian times when our knowledge of genetics and genealogy was nonexistant. It existed to separate people into groups and had no scien tipi fix reasoning for doing so.

If we were to divide the world into races on a gemological or genetic basis, there would either be several hundred races, around 80% of which live in Africa, or there would only be one race. There are no other divisions that make sense.

I can link you some good articles and videos if you would like.
 

Izuna

Banned
Race is smething that is *literally* skin deep. If the last few millimeters of your body has a darker pigmentstion, you're black. That's literally as far as it goes.

Not really. There are many other phenotypes besides appearance such as smells, susceptibility to medication etc. that has evolved alongside different skin colours. Nothing important, but race isn't just skin deep.

Dry Earwax is an example most Western East Asian people may notice they have that's different.
 

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
Oh shit okay I think I get it then, race is more like physical appearance and then ethnicity is cultural?

For example, why say like an African person and a Dominican person are both considered black even though they're completely different people?
You don't even need to use different ethnicities.

According to the socially constructed ideas of race, these two biological twins are according to some people, different races.

maxresdefault.jpg


The whole god damn thing is stupid beyond belief, and it really boggles the mind how in 2017 something so unscientific can still hold so much sway with certain people.
 
Oh shit okay I think I get it then, race is more like physical appearance and then ethnicity is cultural?

For example, why say like an African person and a Dominican person are both considered black even though they're completely different people?

Wait what

All europeans dont look alike. Ethnicity isnt cultural
 

Xe4

Banned
Not really. There are many other phenotypes besides appearance such as smells, susceptibility to medication etc. that has evolved alongside different skin colours. Nothing important, but race isn't just skin deep.

Dry Earwax is an example most Western East Asian people may notice they have that's different.
No, none of those denote race, because mone of them are tied genetically to a person's skin color. If you're black and have sickle cell anemia, for instance, it's not because you're black, but because your parents had the suceptibility of sickle cell deseise, and also happened to be black. There is no genetic tie between being black and having sickle cell deseise, or having curly hair, or large noses. Nor is there a connection between earwax type and being asian.

Any connections we draw end up being purely conincedental. At best, race is a very, very crude way of determining what traits a person may have. It is an outdated concept and has no basis in modern science.
 
We already addressed why you're confused

haha, it has different meanings across the pond
Yeah In my example(Im trying to not confuse the fellow who asking questions) I'm giving a North American esp USA definition in which.

Race: White, Black Asian(Yep that one is also a continent).
Ethnicity: Hispanic, French, English, Russian
Nationality: Spanish, French, English, American

The last two gets confusing but think of it this way Americas is continents of immigrants so the Ethnicity is the cultural stuff you bring to the place you immigrate from.
Nationality where you are currently a citizen of So you can be Black,French,and American.
 
Yes, it's rediculous. Fist thing I thought of as well.

Race is smething that is *literally* skin deep. If the last few millimeters of your body has a darker pigmentation, you're black. If not you're white or mixed race. That's literally as far as it goes.

Race was a system created during Victorian times when our knowledge of genetics and genealogy was nonexistant. It existed to separate people into groups and had no scien tipi fix reasoning for doing so.

If we were to divide the world into races on a gemological or genetic basis, there would either be several hundred races, around 80% of which live in Africa, or there would only be one race. There are no other divisions that make sense.

I can link you some good articles and videos if you would like.
Ahhh okay I gotcha. Yeah I'll do some reading and stuff if you've got it.

You don't even need to use different ethnicities.

According to the socially constructed ideas of race, these two biological twins are according to some people, different races.

maxresdefault.jpg


The whole god damn thing is stupid beyond belief, and it really boggles the mind how in 2017 something so unscientific can still hold so much sway with certain people.
I see what you mean.

So, would some people consider her black if they knew her family/parents were black? Relating back to the thing that happened in the OP?
 

Izuna

Banned
No, none of those denote race, because mone of them are tied genetically to a person's skin color. If you're black and have sickle cell anemia, for instance, it's not because you're black, but because your parents had the suceptibility of sickle cell deseise, and also happened to be black. There is no genetic tie between being black and having sickle cell deseise, or having curly hair, or large noses. Nor is there a connection between earwax type and being asian.

Any connections we draw end up being purely conincedental. At best, race is a very, very crude way of determining what traits a person may have. It is an outdated concept and has no basis in modern science.

Well then, we're disagreeing on the semantics of race. From what I understand, people tie race to stereotypical appearances. If not, then I don't think race is a thing to categorise at all.

But you're wrong if you don't think there is a connection with dry earwax and being Asian (along with sweat smelling less pungent). It has big cultural consequences too, such as the Japanese ear wax cleaning or the fact that culturally they're not used to the idea of deodorant.

Yeah In my example(Im trying to not confuse the fellow who asking questions) I'm giving a North American esp USA definition in which.

Race: White, Black Asian(Yep that one is also a continent).
Ethnicity: Hispanic, French, English, Russian
Nationality: Spanish, French, English, American

The last two gets confusing but think of it this way Americas is continents of immigrants so the Ethnicity is the cultural stuff you bring to the place you immigrate from.
Nationality where you are currently a citizen of So you can be Black,French,and American.

It is important to note that we only have these terms to group different people up because it matters for oppressors. That's where the term "social construct" with regard to race comes in.
 
Ahhh okay I gotcha. Yeah I'll do some reading and stuff if you've got it.


I see what you mean.

So, would some people consider her black if they knew her family/parents were black? Relating back to the thing that happened in the OP?

Yep, or more speicifically coming from my history of race. It just so happens humans like to fuck other humans so What happens when you have for example a White Slaver owner gets one of his Black slaves pregnant. That where the one drop theory comes in. Which states if you have a small bit of black in you from for example being a result of a White slave owner raping a slave or having an ancestors in which that happens you are considered black and will be made a slave. Now this is incredibly racist theory but their many who still follows it as this article shows.
 

Izuna

Banned
I see what you mean.

So, would some people consider her black if they knew her family/parents were black? Relating back to the thing that happened in the OP?

She's black, her sister is white, but they're twins.

There's not much else to be drawn from it.

The white girl, even if someone saw her with black parents, would still be considered white (I think).

As for what happened in the OP, they're all just racist/find racial jokes funny and use the knowledge as a way to pick on their colleague. There's no logic to it.
 
Yep, or more speicifically coming from my history of race. It just so happens humans like to fuck other humans so What happens when you have for example a White Slaver owner gets one of his Black slaves pregnant. That where the one drop theory comes in. Which states if you have a small bit of black in you from for example being a result of a White slave owner raping a slave or having an ancestors in which that happens you are considered black and will be made a slave. Now this is incredibly racist theory but their many who still follows it as this article shows.
Okay yeah I think I definitely get it now. Admittedly my first reaction was also "oh she's black too" because I think I grew up around a lot of people who bought into the one drop theory. Although I wasn't aware when I was young that it would've been for prejudicial reasons, and I've never really thought about it since.
 

ReAxion

Member
I don't know about now, but 23andme's main focus used to be about health-testing until the FDA came down on them.

yeah 23andme is more health focused.

ancestry's other focus is a shitload of historical records like scans of census data. i traced all my ancestors back to europe.
 

Izuna

Banned
yeah 23andme is more health focused.

ancestry's other focus is a shitload of historical records like scans of census data. i traced all my ancestors back to europe.

ancestry was useless for me as a 2nd generation Englishman for this very reason
 

Arksy

Member
Everyone should get an ancestry genetics test so the world can realise that the idea of 'racial' purity is complete bullshit and a significant amount of people would discover that they had roots from places they couldn't even contemplate. There are significant amounts of 'white' Americans who would have African-American genes somewhere down the line whom are unaware of it existing.
 

ReAxion

Member
ancestry was useless for me as a 2nd generation Englishman for this very reason

yeah once it got back across the pond the trail ran pretty dry. i got an email recently for some promotion they were running to get access to more euro stuff they'd added but i haven't checked it out.

i found it very useful, tho. combined with the DNA thing, it led to a family secret being revealed to me.
 
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