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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

It seems to me like you and I are saying a lot of the same things but still speaking past each other. I completely agree with your statement, "When we identify someone as a race, we simply identify their position in the social hierarchy & the effects that has had, not anything essential about their biology."

When I label someone as "white", all I mean is "their position in the social hierarchy & the effects that has had, not anything essential about their biology".

And I think the easiest way to identify "whiteness" in the US is broad appearance categories. Someone who looks like their ancestors are from Italy, or Norway, or Wales in the US typically enjoys social, economic, legal, and political advantages in the US compared to people who looks like their ancestors are from elsewhere. Now as you said, with "one drop" rules someone with lighter skin than my own northern European would face different treatment. But if he or she was driving through Minnesota they would probably be as unlikely to be subject to a random search of their vehicle as I am.

I'm not trying to make any genetic distinction of any kind, just find a label for the appearance category that has unfair privileges.

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[deleted] wrote

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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

Thanks for engaging me, I appreciate it.

Thanks also for explaining where I was crossing concepts. That makes sense. I haven't finished mulling this over, but I think you make a solid case - there should be two completely separate labels for (very loosely) "light skinned people", which is a morally neutral characterization vs (again, loosely) "the class of people who enjoy all kinds of privilege on the basis of light skin", which is immoral. I was mixing the two categories and that's abominable. I'll try to be clearer in the future.

Does that head in the right direction?

So I'll try to rephrase my original point. There is no genocide against the category I labeled light skinned people. Is that a safe assertion, having no connection to white superiority, etc...?

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