Trump attacks protections for immigrants from ‘s***hole’ countries

[Dill]

(01-29-2018, 06:25 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I suppose we have descended into a bit of a semantic argument.  However, my point that "race" is not a western invention or construct still stands.

LOl no it doesn't.  And you don't understand what the claim "race is a Western invention" means. Looks like I'll have to say a little more.

 If one group of 11th century ethnic Hindus discriminated against another on religious or caste grounds, and that group happened to be partly identifiable because of darker skin color, that would not mean that the discriminators had developed a concept of "race" any more than their valuation of gold would mean they had constructed the table of elements.

Set aside the Western race lens for a moment and view this issue through the eyes of the "other." If Han Chinese develop a specific distinction between "Hua" and "Yi" which discriminates against non-Han, and then notice that Europeans also ethnocentrically distinguish between their cultural group and outsiders, can you imagine them arguing that "Yism" is not just a Chinese "invention or construct"?  The Hua/Yi distinction operates in Europe and everywhere else?

And if the Europeans othering involves an elaborate system of anatomical/racial classification, that would hardly match the largely cultural Hua/Yi distinction. Even if Chinese looked down on other ethnic groups, they didn't set them in an elaborate system of anatomical descriptions/classifications. Though a Westerner, viewing all through his own lens of "race," might think the Chinese discrimination was therefore just another form of European-style racial discrimination, thus performing a kind of conceptual/ideological syncretism without even realizing it. 

Race as a concept has a genealogy which can be historically traced back to specific sources, just as can languages or scripts or religious beliefs. One can trace Catholicism back to 2nd century Italy, but not to 2nd century India--even though both Italy and india had 'religion.' One can trace the concept of "race" back to the philosophes of 18th century France and the scientists of 17th century Britain, but not to 17th century Korea or Vietnam, though discrimination existed in all these places.

So that's why social scientists and historians and others who delve deeply into these issues say "race" is a Western concept. They are practicing scholarship and social science, not "self-hate." They aren't saying Westerners are meaner than everyone else cuz they have racism and no one else does bad things.