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. (And yes I’m American if that matters)
Why would you judge it as something good to separate people based on how their skin looks like?
I wouldn’t say it’s “good” but it is what is. Humans connect with each other through shared experiences. Growing up black in America creates a unique cross section of obligate life events. Regardless of your culture or environment, there are things that connect you to other black Americans. Some black people prefer to engage with that identity, others prefer to ignore or actively avoid it. But either way, it’s a choice that defines a significant part of their personality.
I love multiculturalism because we people naturally have different cultures. But to obsessively base everything on skin color like you people on Lemmy is just weird and racist af!
I’m not sure who you mean by “you people” but that sounds kind of racist.
No but seriously, I don’t think it’s racist at all to describe shared experiences, as long as you don’t presume to know someone’s life experiences by the color of their skin. For instance, a lot of black people experience police discrimination in America. Being pulled over for no reason, needing to stay calm and respectful in the face of fascism, these are normal, common experiences that can traumatize a person. Talking about those experiences with people who have lived them can help you process and heal from the trauma.
A white person can also be pulled over by police for no reason. It could be because of the way they look. They may have been afraid that the police would randomly decide to murder them in broad daylight. This experience can happen to anyone, but because it disproportionately happens to black people, they are able to discuss it in short hand. “You been pulled over?” “Yeah, DWB. Motherfuckers.”
Two white people would not have the same conversation. “I got pulled over.” “Speeding?” “No, no reason at all.” “That happened to me once. Broken tailight, the cop was really nice about it.” “No, man, like he seemed angry and suspicious, and I thought he was going to arrest me or shoot me or something.” “For real?! That’s wild. You should call a lawyer and sue his ass.”
It’s not racist to describe these two realities. It’s not racist to ask about these experiences to learn from other cultures. It is racist to assume that these experiences are universal. You couldn’t say for sure that these are the experiences of a particular individual based on their race.