Those that claim to be color blind are merely blind. They don't want to see color because that would force them to see a lot of things they prefer to ignore.

When it comes to color, race and religion I say:

He is African-American AND....

She is Mexican-American AND....

He is Catholic AND....

She is Muslim AND....

Color, race, ethnicity and religion are not things that should devide, but a portal to the totality of who and what we are and where we come from. Only when you accept the whole package as is in its full breath and depth can you defeat racism and bigotry.

It gets me all annoyed when people say they want to live in a 'color-blind' world or that 'love is color-blind' - what BS. And honestly, usually it's white people that say this stuff and well that just signifies their utter cluelessness about their own white privilege. It's a facile idea at best and a deluded one at, well, another best. Color is important, historically, presently and future-ly (hate it when I can't find the word I want. or does it exist?). In ways that are painful as well as meaningful and powerful y todo eso.

And frankly, this idea that we should see beyond color or be color-blind makes me think that they'd (whoever they are) would like to erase people of color/make them white. I'm sure that's not what the folks that you are quoting and linking to meant. But it's a sneaking suspicion whenever I hear this kind of thing.

para rafael... I'm Chicana AND...PROUD, goddammit! :)
I'm Chicana Y a whole slew of other things, of which I am also proud. As you say- accept, respect the whole package with all it's eccentricities and oddities and nuances and history, the bad stuff, the good stuff...

"(Not to mention the banner is, um, not really meant to be taken so literally.)"

yes, because if it was meant to be truthfull, it would be much more than 10 aryans! :)

Having once made the mistake of getting into this with Nezu, I'm not gonna do that again :-)

The problem I have (or, maybe that America has) is defining people by "race" (something not done everywhere)gets tricky. And sometimes is meaningless. Obama would be seen as "white" or "mulato" or... it wouldn't even mean anything in other places.

But... he's here, and it does matter here. I'll accept that. It shouldn't, but does.

I've seen the argument that nobody in their right mind is in favor of racism... but by channelling outrage into anti-racist activities, the "powers that be" keep us from focusing on economic and social inequality.

Gringo,

"but by channelling outrage into anti-racist activities, the "powers that be" keep us from focusing on economic and social inequality."

anti-racism work is intertwinned with social and ecomonic inequality. colonialism and the social construction of race are seeped into what we think of as the marketplace. The conquest of the Americas was/is based on a racial hierarchy. Cheap labor statistically composes people of color. This is not just an effect of the market, it *is* the market. The reason Europeans could mentally justify the enslavement of Africans and their later place in society as a source for cheap labor was because they were viewed as an 'inferior race.' Just like Native Americans.

I do not think that anyone in their right mind would argue that race exists in nature. There is more genetic diversity in Africa than there is in the whole rest of the world because only a small group of humans left Africa to populate Europe, the Americas etc. BUT race is nevertheless *real*--as in we can tell that it is around because of an unequal power dynamic that connects value to certain phenotypes and not others. This is what I address when I am talking about race. It is easy for whites to claim that race should not be spoken about--it works in their favor.

And where does racism not exist? does racism not have a hand in the global policies of the "powers that be"?

bingo, richard/gringo. your White Lens is showing. I was gonna let it go because you're trying. And at least this time you're (begrudgingly) admitting that there is racism in America. Progress matters. But of course, Luisa is right. I mean honestly, the implication is a bit...hmm. Insulting? Nobody is "channeling outrage" using us, bro. Nobody's sidetracking me with a fake complaint. I am giving up some useful and valid lines of thinking, and its all well-deserved, and inspired by life experience and my ability to see and think. Even my outrage is well-deserved. Shit. Someone better get outraged with what's going down today. It's all out there, vato. And it's all real.

to paraphrase, 'Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another inferior has been toppled, totally destroyed, until basic human rights are guaranteed to all without regard to race, until the color of a man's skin is of no more signifgance than the color of his eyes, everywhere is war.'

and until that day!
the dream of lasting peace...world citizenship
rule of international democracy
will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursuuuuuued
but never attained...

jaja! one of my favorite songs, man. good call.

Nice post and thread. So I just came from dinner with these Europeans and Brazilians who believe in color blindness. They think that admitting race is real (as a socially constructed, political category, with concrete implications for real people) is a figment of the American imagination, and to believe it is more than that is 'racist'. I am so tired of that color blind argument I could spit.

some people end up with figments of american lead blown through their head for as little as being a person of color in the wrong area, or with the wrong attitude, or for say, reaching for a wallet when asked, or bumping into a cop car when pulling out of a lot. your dinner pals oughtta take their colorblind asses into the wrong part of washington heights or the bronx or LA or compton...and those are just the super obvious examples. we got a billion tiny insidious ones on hand, too. some smaller ones are listed in the post above.

i'm sure not saying i enjoy the awareness. and i can understand wanting not to see something that would remove your privilege, or at least some of your Guilt-Free. It's not like I want this stuff to continue. and maybe if you live in a colonial land that is not annexed to a land still being conquered, or that doesn't have a history of slavery within the same country, or a genocide of tribes in its recent past, it would not a tangible thing. and maybe nonamericans who dont live here dont get it because of those reasons, and maybe its hard to blame them. yet the sun unseen remains brilliant, and those attitudes, even if understandable, remain ignorant, stupid, and harmful attitudes and i, too am quite sick of hearing them drop from people's lips.

hey zero,

so were these afro-brazilians? brazil has an interesting kind of racism, huh? different kind of racism than here...(is it a cuban style racism with an american twist?). i think it is so interesting that people play off brazil like it is some kind of racial paradise. and don't get me started on racism in europe. immigrants/poc arn't treated so nicely there either.

Nezua, It is a truly great song. It was taken from a speech Haile Salassie of Ethiopia gave to the UN General Assembly in, I think, 1964.

As a white dude, I will tell you there is plenty of racism in the USA. I know people who think it's a thing of the past, and it surprises me they are so oblivious. I think part of the problem is that the open discussion of racism is not allowed - if you are POC and cry 'racism', the White Lens says it's just a ploy; and the whiter side thinks it was all fixed in the 60s.

I know that as a white suburban middle class guy, I start out with many unrecorded priviliges - like never getting pulled over for being the wrong color, like being able to shop in a wandering manner, etc. It's a real shame, since we are all homo sapiens and have the same basic needs. But by virtue of my non-pigmentedness, the authorities pretty much ignore me.

O/T Aryans are from the northern part of India.

yeah, III Do Chay, my partner is a white guy too and he just spits blood when he runs up against other white guys who, while "progressive" and "liberal" in terms of their politics are completely unaware of their white privelege and their white lens, etc.

I am curious too about Brazil...what's the deal there? Am also a bit unaware of the Cuban style racism... But I gotta believe there is racial hiearchy in Brazil. I know that in the south people speak more like people from Portugal and that accent is considered more high class (or whatever). But that's about the extent of my knowledge...

There's plenty of racism in Mexico, that I do know and has been forever, at least since colonization (don't know if there was racial hierarchies within and among indigenous groups). And even this weird thing within families where light-skinnedness is favored, abuelitas commenting on such and such's dark skin versus how much more beautiful (aka marriage-able) such and other is because of her light skin. My mother even used to tell me this old fable (not sure what the provenance is but my mom is Mexican so ?mexican ?spanish) about a crow who is looking for her lost chicks. And she describes them as beautiful, with blue eyes and blond-y!!!! The hawk to whom she describes them says that he's only seen some ugly black birds and he has eaten them. It supposed to be about how a mother's love is blind (more like deluded and racist, but...) My mom recently re-told me this story and I was like WHOA!!! I'd never realized how racially-charged the story was.

You Fools need to stop being racists or you fools will get shot

Dear 170.211.109.61 or JHildebrand_2010@yahoo.com— tho i'm sure that email address is as real as your name—you make a very "wise" argument, but I think you may want to think it over. Cyberbullets aren't very lethal. I know it hurts when you are not smart enough to understand someone's writing, but don't go making yourself look foolish in public. Just keep it in your room, then only you will know.

And please don't use a Spanish name to mask your ugly soul! :) It just makes you look utterly self-loathing and confused.

though i'm honoured my comment ispired this nice post (fairly balanced and almost apologetic ;-), i would like to stress that i DIDN'T write that i thought your byline was 'racist', so i think it's not fair that you use this word in quotation marks, thank you.

if you check back, all i did was making a (ok probly not so cool) playful reference to your joke + expressing my discomfort with "slogans also usable eg. for nazis by only exchanging a single word/race/class/gender/group", and also gave some more explanations + background on this.

and just for the record, contrary to you i also didn't imply you were a homosexual or female and i also didn't call you "baby", hombre.

while i admit due to my personal situation i'm less alert and aware re: race issues, there's also other issues to be reckoned with e.g. re: class, sex, gender, and even more 'isms' like ablism, lookism etc.

(now i gotta go, but will be back also on the other thread later.)

do you really think i went back in time to january 2nd of 2007 to make a post inspired by your May 2007 comment? !! funny man!

i sometimes call my friends "baby," it's a "hip" thing to say among amigos of mine, see? we did it a lot in tha Brook, that's BK, brooklyn to you. don't take it personally, baby.

and gay? does one have to be a homosexual or a woman to note that a man is sexy? hmmm. perhaps. but to me, that sounds sort of homophobic or sexist. are we not aware of energy as males? or are we living in the fifties, when it was verboten to even muse upon such things? i think there are man who radiate sexuality. Prince, for one. Mick jagger is sexy. Antonio banderas has his moments. Lou? Nah. Not even with his fat wallet, my friend! but me? hella sexy! oh yeah. sexier than TEN aryans.

anyway, this batting around of undercover issues is done i have things to do

LATA

Your staement,

"Nezua is "smarter than 10 Aryans""

IS RACIST TO THE CORE. It is obvious to everyone but you.

How can you say being proud of your mexican "genes" is any different than "white power"? How should someone of Aryan background respond to a staement like this? Is that not saying that one "race" is better than another?

Obviously your mother never taught you that 2 wrongs do not make a right. Luckly for us all you obviously don't have intelect to be a serious contender in this debate. In fact you do a lot to prove how racist latinos can be. Shamefull.

aw. your tiny mind can't handle the fact that for some people, one's genes are seen as ugly and filthy in this land, and thus standing up proudly against an imaginary thing as this Aryan "race" ("Aryan" references hitler's idea, not any people i know want to stand under that banner) is empowering....and not quite the same thing as the racism they suffered under growing up with a distorted self-image in a land that has hanged blacks, enslaved chinese, murdered indians and still loathes non-white people as a general rule.

but if you think on it, maybe it will come to you. don't believe what they say about your brain peaking at 25. i think you can grow some new synapse clefts. i do. i believe in you.

Also, you are obviously a THUG because otherwise you would not expose email addresses of people who post saying things you disagree with... because your form does state Email is "hidden". So by doing this kind of thing to previous posts (not mine) you are trying to intimidate or cause public ridicule to (aka bully) the person saying things you dis-agree with.

Is that really your idea of a free and open discussion?

Again you do a lot to help the people you pretend to be speaking against.

Maybe you are a FBI/CIA plant to bolster the idea of Latinos being racist? (oh and that's "not really meant to be taken so literally") Keep up the good work!

get some rest, bro. the computer light does start to get to the mind after a while, i know. i feel you. :)

Is this the wrong moment to say after your write up of going to NY you should change it to 'Smarter Than A Hundred Aryans'? Because y'know, good report.
P.S. Up the road in the village there is an Aryan cafe but they mean the original pre-European adoption Aryan's- Iranians/Indians. Would it upset neo-Nazis if they found out they are allying with Iran? I'm guessing their sense of humour doesn't stretch that far...

jeje...thanks Rick. yeah, i do know about the original Aryans. but much less people do. and this is such a tasty nougat, haters cannot resist it. it's like leaving a piece of stinky cheese out for a rat. they'll always come back.

yes...maybe i should change it to a hundred.

Guys, there are no "original Aryans.' The whole nomenclature is 18th/19th- century European colonialist racism masquerading as linguistics and ethnology.

i think this is what we are talking about:

"original" shorthand for:

Aryan is an English language word derived from Sanskrit and Avestan term ārya- meaning "noble" or "spiritual".[1] It is widely held to have been used as an ethnic self-designation of the Proto-Indo-Iranians. Since, in the 19th century, the Indo-Iranians were the most ancient known speakers of Indo-European languages, the word Aryan was adopted to refer not only to the Indo-Iranian people, but also to Indo-European speakers as a whole.

In Europe, the concept of an Aryan race became influential in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as linguists and ethnologists argued that speakers of these Indo-European languages constitute a distinctive race, descended from an ancient people, who were referred to as the "primitive Aryans", but are now known as Proto-Indo-Europeans.

as opposed to:

The Aryan race was a term used in the early 20th century by European racial theorists who believed strongly in the division of humanity into biologically distinct races with differing characteristics. Such writers believed that the Proto-Indo-Europeans constituted a specific race that had expanded across Europe, Iran and India. This meaning was, and still is, common in theories of racial superiority which were embraced by Nazi Germany. This usage tends to merge the Sanskrit meaning of "noble" or "elevated" with the idea of distinctive behavioral and ancestral ethnicity marked by language distribution. In this interpretation, the Aryan Race is both the highest representative of mankind and the purest descendent of the Proto-Indo-European population.

I am Mexican and I really don't believe that American is Free as we say it is in our constitution. You have to understand that times when segregation was involved it was much easier. Because people understood their place in society. Nowadays people aspire to become more that they are in normal life in order to make it. It is out of the ordinary for someone not to do this nowadays. But in the years past it was not even though of by the Mexican Communities. They believe that we don't care about issues or at least try to make us that way. Colleges teach us less than the other people because they believe that we are smart if we know the whole idea behind it. Remember people if you go though life thinking that everything is normal think again. We are being studied every day. While in the military I studied them too and all the different types that we have in the US. Believe it or not the people from the East are Stupid and the Midwesterners being left out as the stupid ones actually hold more knowledge that a lot of them on many different things. The truth about it is that To White people we are just the servants even if they make us into something they will never accept us. The important part is always acceptance is it not. If we are accepted that we are liked too that is what they don't want us to know. Everytime a white person tells you that you cannot do something at a job site he is reminding you that he is superior. Every time that he says you may not do something he is saying you are just another number not like me. With this phylosophy they have conquered our minds. They go to a higher level. That is their strategy that if they know more they will ultimately rule everything. That is why they study so much. They really do hate everyone and they don't care how important it is to anyone. They do it in the name of capitalism they make you believe that you are one of them and then after you are done in life and suceeded at their game they will vanish you. This is their strategy. I myself would like to see it backfire on them. What a crazy world ha. To think we all believe everything they say because they make us believe that we are just like them.

You may disagree? If you are white you may hate me right about now? But you don't know anything about me. Remember I am just like the rest of them in a vast group of people. Or am I?