"Racism"

[Belsnickel]

(03-15-2018, 10:55 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Sorry, I did not mean to claim anything.  I meant to ask you how you define "race" when you address "racial profiling".

When I talk about a lack of a biological basis for race, I am basing that upon the lack of modern scientists being able to find one. Scientists want one, they are trying hard to find one, because that makes these things easier. It is much easier to categorize people by something biological or genetic because it is neat, tidy, and objective. The problem is that they have been searching ever since they discovered DNA and they have yet to find a way to do it. So I want to be clear that this is why I say there is no biological basis for race.

What creates race, or constructs it, is how people are perceived in a society. What is interesting about racial profiling is that it is like the chicken or the egg question. Is racial profiling truly based on race, or is racial profiling helping to create the culture that is the black race? The answer is both, because it is a self-perpetuating system. I know I'm not good at describing this. While I study the social sciences, anthropology and sociology aren't my specialties and so while I know enough to get me into trouble I am not the best at explaining them. But the way I see racial profiling manifest is that someone perceives another person as being a part of a racial group, not even that they necessarily are.

I'm going to stop, now, because I know I'm struggling to explain my thoughts so I know it isn't very coherent to read.

Addendum: Okay, I had a thought. We discuss how there is a difference between biological sex and your gender. That gender is a social construct that exists because of the expectations placed on you by society based upon how you present yourself based on masculinity of femininity. Race works in the same way as gender in that there are certain cultural expectations placed on a person by society based on how they appear. I hope that makes more sense and helps understand how I (and the scientific community) view race.