“RACE, IS A DISTRACTION FROM THE REAL ISSUES..”
Because “the heart is deceitful above all things” according to scripture, “race, as a social construct”, is even possible..
Today, with all of our internet access and learning, there’s still so much ignorance, misinformation and hostility on display, especially during some of these intense social media conversations about “race”. Because, all too often, we ASSUME that every time we (minorities) SEE disparities or disproportionality of any kind — we’re seeing “racism” or prejudice at work..
WHEN, some of the reason these biases, incongruences and injustices exists and are so prevalent, is due to “the context” in which they are administered, presented, and understood concerning the challenges, experiences and history of certain cultural and ethnic persons or groups..
As an example, “cultural colloquialisms” have a specific meaning or context, based upon THE COMMON EXPERIENCE of the said person or group that encounters them “in their skin”..
Meaning, YOU (white, green, yellow, or red person) would NEVER “see it” the way that I do, WITHOUT MY EXPERIENCES or MY GLASSES (lens) that is colored by a biological, psychological, and sociological perspective that is uniquely my own!
This is really no big mystery to uncover. But, it does become important in the conversation, when “color” seems to be taking leading ABOVE — character, integrity and capacity (competency level) of the person seeking leadership, expressing their opinion, or wagging their political tongue like their knowledgable; BUT, they really are NOT!
But, in order for US not to contribute to the foolishness, WE MUST recognize that “race” is a “social construction”; and that does not make race less “real”. And, just like
“marriages” are social constructions as well, their roots have serious cultural, legal, religious, and interpersonal implications.
Oftentimes, as you’ll discover just “growing older”, its the social aspect of most things that makes the issue a phenomenon that is so common or central to ALL of our lives (humanity); AND, its not so much about the things that distract us from the REAL ISSUES..
Put simply, let’s use Obama’s “blackness” as an example of something that was systematically determined a) by racial biases of the perceiver, b) by the political partisanship of the perceiver, and c) by the temporal proximity of the testing session to an election. These patterns reflect “social construction of race”. If Obama were Black or biracial simply as a matter of biological race, we would not see such patterns, whereby his degree of Blackness is a moving target and a topic of debate.
Obama is who he is, but people categorize him as more or less Black, as a function of their own psychological processing. When the target stands still, but his categorization “as X” or “as Y” moves, there is a reasonable conclusion: “categorization is a social construction with psychological roots.”
YOU and I have been PROGRAMMED in many respects “to believe what we believe”!
WAKE UP NOW, and realize, yours and my “freedom” is based upon “what we can perceive properly”, “embrace wholeheartedly”, and “respect dutifully”, because EVERYTHING ELSE is about YOUR OWN PERCEPTION!
If YOU “give GOD your heart”, HE will give YOU a new heart in return! WS-3
Today, with all of our internet access and learning, there’s still so much ignorance, misinformation and hostility on display, especially during some of these intense social media conversations about “race”. Because, all too often, we ASSUME that every time we (minorities) SEE disparities or disproportionality of any kind — we’re seeing “racism” or prejudice at work..
WHEN, some of the reason these biases, incongruences and injustices exists and are so prevalent, is due to “the context” in which they are administered, presented, and understood concerning the challenges, experiences and history of certain cultural and ethnic persons or groups..
As an example, “cultural colloquialisms” have a specific meaning or context, based upon THE COMMON EXPERIENCE of the said person or group that encounters them “in their skin”..
Meaning, YOU (white, green, yellow, or red person) would NEVER “see it” the way that I do, WITHOUT MY EXPERIENCES or MY GLASSES (lens) that is colored by a biological, psychological, and sociological perspective that is uniquely my own!
This is really no big mystery to uncover. But, it does become important in the conversation, when “color” seems to be taking leading ABOVE — character, integrity and capacity (competency level) of the person seeking leadership, expressing their opinion, or wagging their political tongue like their knowledgable; BUT, they really are NOT!
But, in order for US not to contribute to the foolishness, WE MUST recognize that “race” is a “social construction”; and that does not make race less “real”. And, just like
“marriages” are social constructions as well, their roots have serious cultural, legal, religious, and interpersonal implications.
Oftentimes, as you’ll discover just “growing older”, its the social aspect of most things that makes the issue a phenomenon that is so common or central to ALL of our lives (humanity); AND, its not so much about the things that distract us from the REAL ISSUES..
Put simply, let’s use Obama’s “blackness” as an example of something that was systematically determined a) by racial biases of the perceiver, b) by the political partisanship of the perceiver, and c) by the temporal proximity of the testing session to an election. These patterns reflect “social construction of race”. If Obama were Black or biracial simply as a matter of biological race, we would not see such patterns, whereby his degree of Blackness is a moving target and a topic of debate.
Obama is who he is, but people categorize him as more or less Black, as a function of their own psychological processing. When the target stands still, but his categorization “as X” or “as Y” moves, there is a reasonable conclusion: “categorization is a social construction with psychological roots.”
YOU and I have been PROGRAMMED in many respects “to believe what we believe”!
WAKE UP NOW, and realize, yours and my “freedom” is based upon “what we can perceive properly”, “embrace wholeheartedly”, and “respect dutifully”, because EVERYTHING ELSE is about YOUR OWN PERCEPTION!
If YOU “give GOD your heart”, HE will give YOU a new heart in return! WS-3
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