I wonder if you can make an analogy with sexuality that's the least bit useful.
I don't know if the sexuality analogy is useful. The thing is? While, no, you can't say Shakespeare is gay from the sonnets he wrote, since there was a social context for love between men which was not considered homosexual, but even the Elizabethans had a clear concept of men who had sex with other men, and a concept of homosexuality (even just as a sexual deviance and sin), heterosexuality, and even bisexuality. And there are clear examples of people who were known to be homosexual because they had sex with people of the same gender and were identified as such, separate from any socially acceptable sonnet writing.
Not to mention that the Elizabethans were aware of the homoerotic implications of such poetry as well.
Sorry to pick apart your example, but I think both historically speaking and speaking in the context of race, it is a bit problematic. But I thank you for saying it.
The problem with making sexuality to race analogies is that sexuality is not like race, in that a person can more easily disguise their sexuality than their race. Race is an identifier which is both personal and social. A person can identify as one race and yet continue to be called another by people who come across them. For instance, people of mixed heritages may find that, for instance, even though they had a parent who was white and one who was black, they are called "black" because of physical attributes, even though they identify as bi-racial.
And since race is a label that is often put on a person by society, I'm wondering where the boundaries are, and what it is that makes a person a "person of color" as opposed to "white". It's a bit like asking for the definition of pornography I feel. It seems like we know it when we see it, but the minute we lay down terms, something comes along to prove us wrong.
I feel like I did have some aspects of white privilege when I was living in Japan
That's something else, and I'm glad you brought it up. Because while white privilege is an undeniable fact of life in America, I'm not at all sure how far beyond our own borders it extends. And hearing whether that privilege extends into other countries is something I think we really need to talk about. Frankly, I'm a little worried by how America-centric a lot of the discussions of race have been, as though America is the only country in the world where racism exists or needs rooting out. I think by understanding racism in a larger, global context, we stand a better chance of getting rid of it in America.
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I don't know if the sexuality analogy is useful. The thing is? While, no, you can't say Shakespeare is gay from the sonnets he wrote, since there was a social context for love between men which was not considered homosexual, but even the Elizabethans had a clear concept of men who had sex with other men, and a concept of homosexuality (even just as a sexual deviance and sin), heterosexuality, and even bisexuality. And there are clear examples of people who were known to be homosexual because they had sex with people of the same gender and were identified as such, separate from any socially acceptable sonnet writing.
Not to mention that the Elizabethans were aware of the homoerotic implications of such poetry as well.
Sorry to pick apart your example, but I think both historically speaking and speaking in the context of race, it is a bit problematic. But I thank you for saying it.
The problem with making sexuality to race analogies is that sexuality is not like race, in that a person can more easily disguise their sexuality than their race. Race is an identifier which is both personal and social. A person can identify as one race and yet continue to be called another by people who come across them. For instance, people of mixed heritages may find that, for instance, even though they had a parent who was white and one who was black, they are called "black" because of physical attributes, even though they identify as bi-racial.
And since race is a label that is often put on a person by society, I'm wondering where the boundaries are, and what it is that makes a person a "person of color" as opposed to "white". It's a bit like asking for the definition of pornography I feel. It seems like we know it when we see it, but the minute we lay down terms, something comes along to prove us wrong.
I feel like I did have some aspects of white privilege when I was living in Japan
That's something else, and I'm glad you brought it up. Because while white privilege is an undeniable fact of life in America, I'm not at all sure how far beyond our own borders it extends. And hearing whether that privilege extends into other countries is something I think we really need to talk about. Frankly, I'm a little worried by how America-centric a lot of the discussions of race have been, as though America is the only country in the world where racism exists or needs rooting out. I think by understanding racism in a larger, global context, we stand a better chance of getting rid of it in America.