Certificate of Degree of Indian or Native Alaskan Blood

[LSLGuy]

This thread (180 posts as I write) is substantially the same concept albeit with a different precipitating example:

Does labeling people by race promote racism?

Our penchant for racial labeling, even when well-intentioned, is in and of itself a bias. This might be a new concept for many people to grasp, because for years America’s race-based diversity programs have relied upon labeling. snip We lump people into racial categories as though all the people in a certain race group are the same and, thus, different from those in another group—creating an us vs. them mentality. My global upbringing has taught me differently: Across all our differences, w…

IMO all of these tendentious discussions can be summarized in a few short paragraphs. To wit:

If there had never been any racial awareness there would now be no race-based discrimination or race-based inequality. Right now there is both a high degree of racial awareness and a high degree of race-based discrimination and race-based inequality.

If we fix the racial awareness first, that will entrench the inequality but render it invisible. If we fix the inequality first, that will necessitate delaying fixing the awareness and may in fact increase racial awareness in the interim.

Some people would love the consequences of door number 1. So they disingenuously claim that the delays and increases inherent in door number 2 are unconscionable and make the problem worse not better.

Others understand that we don’t fix the accumulated consequences of centuries of neglect by simply screwing our eyes shut, declaring “problem solved”, and moving on. Instead actual work and actual change is required. Which requires paying deliberate close attention to what we’re working on: matters of race.

Thank you.