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Different? Not So Much.
My friend is a “different” race than I am. I’m considered “white” and he is considered “black.” Aside from the fact that we are really both just shades of the same color which I call Human, are we really different?
He has two eyes, I have two eyes.
He has one nose, I have one.
He has one mouth, I have one.
He has two arms, I have two.
He has two legs, I have two.
He has two hands, I have two.
He has two feet, I have two.
He has ten fingers, I have ten.
He has one head, I have one.
He has hair, I have a little.
He has ten toes, I have ten.
He has a heart, I have one (really).
He has a stomach, I have a bigger one.
He has a brain, I used to have one.
So, why, pray tell, do people focus so much on the one apparent difference between us? Doesn’t that seem a little narrow? That’s how I see it at any rate.
Discuss, please. Enlighten me.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
I have many reasons I would give, but the one that immediately comes to mind is that we tend to not only focus on how we are different from each other (to make ourselves distinct, special), but also to make ourselves superior to others. We can see this in levels of education, religion, politics, and income. Seeing differences in color makes it even easier to mark distinctions–and of course, we have to be better than them. It is so very sad. Love the post.
The roots of this lie in ethnicity and culture as much as skin color and it mostly doesn’t really exist anymore in America except as raised from the dead, so to speak, by the Left trying to maintain some advantage by doing so. Skin color as a tribal identifier is not effective in modern times.
Back in college I belonged to a group whose motto was: “There is only one race, the human race.” Nowadays saying that online in the wrong context gets you attacked by wokescolds.
We’ve taken a huge step backwards since then. Shameful that
Please keep on saying what you know is true whether the woke crowd likes it or not. They must not win.
It’s funny I was talking to a nice intelligent black women not too long ago who said after marrying a white man, she gave birth to a white girl and a black boy.
So I am kinda thinking,- I know always a dangerous thing – how many cases of this are there out there ? How are we to maintain our wondrous politically correct Jim Crow system of judging people by their skin color and not buy the content of their character – knowing full well that skin color may not accurately reflect their true ethnic background? Or being oh so politically correct as I am, how am I to properly discriminate between these kids – one white and one black even though they both come from the same parents? I am so afraid of offending the woke scolds, what am I to do?
It is when Yer applying for jobs and colleges.
Think for yourself and say what you think with charity and kindness in your heart. That’s the part that is up to you, thier reaction is on them. If we let them intimidate us to silence then our liberty is lost.
Truth and liberty are defended at home as much as on foreign fields.
Just because humans have these 747 brains, we think we have no instincts. I can’t prove it, but I think we are genetically coded for group conflict. Can you think of a more obvious existing difference than skin color? It’s stupid, and if we use those brains, we can overcome our instincts. How many people do that?
Hey, that’s yer government again, no?
That should be posted in every school and college, and remind people that there is no difference – so simple – yet so hard for some to see.
The true racists are the ones that started using the terms “white” and “black” to define people who were predominately Caucasian or Negroid. Why those terms are still used today is beyond my understanding. There is not a human that is white, even albinos are not actually white. Nor is there a human who is black, even from the tribes who characteristically have the darkest skin…it is still brown, not black. All humans are shades of brown. However, white is the opposite of black. In literature, the terms “White knight and Black knight” imply that white is good and black is bad. Angels are white and witches are black. Using those terms couldn’t be any more divisive than if someone actually were purposefully attempting to create enmity and mistrust, as well as feelings of superiority and inferiority. Oh gee, maybe that is exactly the point.
Agreed 😔
The cultural expectation that we emphasize our differences over our commonalities is a particular annoyance to me, if the objective is to help people get along. That’s one of the two big reasons I oppose the “diversity” agenda as it is currently being pushed. We’ll get along much better if we start with what we have in common, then we can more intelligently deal with our differences.
My favorite personal anecdote is my relationship with one of my friends in the last town in which we lived. He and I were first introduced to each other because we worked in the same business profession. As we talked, we learned that we had similar theological views. Then we got into our different cultural backgrounds – me as a white suburban kid growing up in southern California, he as a black kid growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania. But by then those differences were matters of interest, and not of division, because we had already established a lot of common ground.
In another instance, a couple at church was expert at helping new people feel welcomed. They remembered a lot about other families in the church, and could quickly find other people with a common profession, or children similar ages, or who moved from a similar area for the newcomers to talk to. The couple could then introduce the newcomers to others in the church who had something in common with the newcomers, and thus could help the newcomers had people to talk to and start relationships.
If our objective is to help people get along, let’s focus first on what we have in common, and not start with our differences.