Hey there, I was wondering if I'm the only one who feels like this or not.
So I grew up thinking that we people all look different and never had a concept of something such as "white" and "black" people.
But especially in the last years I noticed more and more that a lot of people make such a big thing out of whether someone is "black" or "white" and what their ethnicity is.
It feels like it's to the point where they make this define their core identity as if it's very relevant how people look and how bright/dark their skin is as if this changes their personality.
It's like so many of these people constantly bring this up to the point where it's brainwashing and they literally even use racial slur as slang that was used in the past to devalue and enslave people based on their skin tone.
Since I experienced this it made me very uncomfortable since I never had this concept before and now I constantly have to obsessively think about it and feel like it's manipulating me and these people still bring it up all the time.
I think this is driving me insane cause I never would think about humans so strongly because of their skin or something since it simply isn't relevant and it just feels wrong but I can't escape it since so many people continue to make such a big deal out of it.
Edit: To the people saying people have different advantages because of their skin, I'm fully aware of that and I wasn't intending to debate that. My question was primarily about if other people have the same uncomfortable feeling that many people differentiate between people based on their skin and make such a big deal out of it (so more a personal feelings question than a generale debate about why it exists) because imo in a healthy society this shouldn't be the case. But in my opinion the fact that we continue this behaviour instead of changing it is the exact reason we have racism and the issues of inequality based on someone's skin in the first place. We need to start to change at some place and not just give up on it. If we continue to see people as "black" or "white" instead of just seeing them as "people" and only look at the past we will never end this issue. Ignorance is certainly not the solution. I found these videos where I think Elon Musk and Morgan Freeman are pretty much hitting the nail on the head.
You are arriving at the same conclusions as Critical Race Theory in America, just from a clearly outsider’s perspective.
Your uncomfortable feelings quite directly align with the truth that “race” is not a historical or natural human element, but rather an entirely subjective construct built and enforced by white supremacists ~~in~~ following the 1500s and perpetuated through today.
However, systemic issues as deeply embedded as white supremacy cannot be addressed without systemic solutions. One such solution is solidarity. People of color, especially in a system as deeply entrenched in racism as America’s, will often need to rely on one another in order to overcome racial barriers. Indigenous, Black, Asian, Latine, mixed, etc. folk do not have the same privilege as White folk do as individuals or as minority groups, and so they strategically find ways to create spaces and communities that prioritize the needs of themselves and their neighbors. It’s kind of like the queer community. If gay people had never been demonized, sure! There would be no need for careful interrogations of identity and sexuality. But the fact is that LGBTQ+ people and POC have both been abused and mistreated for centuries. The process of healing those wounds requires a huge degree of intentional community and commitment to understanding marginalized identities.
I am guessing that perhaps 80% of the “making a big thing” of race you see is this forging of community in solidarity. Now, racism is of course still a thing, so when you do see racial language that is centered around putting down, limiting, or otherwise devaluing lives based on race, feel free to call it the fuck out and feel as uncomfortable as you like. But! If you even see a glimmer of mutual aid, solidarity, and a recognition and redressing of historical denigration of non-white life, take a moment to pause and listen. For centuries race has been exclusively under the thumb of white individuals, so it might be time to let people of color have a moment at the reigns as we move towards healing.
You need to go further back than just 1500.
Western European thoughts on this were heavily influenced by the Ottoman and Byzantine empires.
Which were in turn based on the Roman empire.
Which were in turn based on the Classical Greeks, particularly those of Athens.
To exclusively blame western Europeans for this, when they were nearly wiped out by the Roman empire colonialism, is very short sighted.
I’m not doing blame at all, I am pointing out the general span in time at which our modern conception of “race” came to fruition, which happens to generally fall between the 1500s-1660, at which point “race” became near irreversibly and totally entangled with concepts of supremacy and the slave trade.
Thank you for understanding and please let this continue to be a space of transparency and kind discussion. We absolutely do not need to throw attacks of short sightedness and men of straw in this debate of already highly sensitive topics. I’m more than happy to answer any questions you have about my positions but I will not respond to further misrepresentations.
But you arent doing that.
You cannot do that fairly without pointing out, for example, the brutal and vicious racism where the British compared the Irish and the Scottish to Apes and to be different, inferior races.
These dehumanizing tactics used by the British to assert dominance occurred roundabouts the Irish Potato Famine (1845-52) which is very much in the window of 1660-present. So your narrative 100% corroborates my statement that the term “race” came to full fruition in circa 1660.
Europeans also do racism against other Europeans; I have no problem accepting this reality. Racism just has a really long and complicated history such that it’s impossible to list all its manifestations in a single comment. It’s weird and frankly annoying that you expect me to.