I find this whole discussion pretty amusing, and a little disturbing. Why disturbing? Because most of the people here seem to be buying into lies. There is no such thing as race. It only exists so far as we allow it to continue to exist. Skin colour is simply a biological adaptation to environment; those with darker skin developed it as a defense to sun, and those with lighter skin developed it as a defense against cold (specifically, as a resistance to frostbite, apparently. They discovered this only within the last forty years). Race is a sociological classification that's steeped in the ignorance of the past, specifically stemming from the 1600's from people like Linnaeus. Race has no biological or genetic foundation- people of the same "race" may have more genetic variation between themselves than two people of a different "race". In the ancient world, there was no such concept as race, and people simply didn't care about skin colour. Hell, a few Roman emperor were from Africa. Race is a relatively recent invention in history, and one that's been proven to have no scientific basis. Unfortunately, it was used as a justification for a lot of wretched things, and because of this, we continue to perpetuate the lie because we simply don't know any better. It's only continues because we make it "real" in our heads.
I understand being proud of heritage. There's no reason not to be. But that is a cultural thing; being "proud" of a biological adaptation like skin colour is the equivalent of being proud of resistance to sickle cell annemia. It's rather ridiculous. That's being proud of your ancestor contracting a disease so that you won't, like being proud of race is being proud of your ancestors living in a sunny spot or where winters get colder. It does nothing but reinforce ignorance about the way the world actually works, and keep people mentally and sociologically segregated from each other. As long as people continue to believe in the fallacy of race, they'll continue to make it a problem.
So no, I don't see race, and skin colour and the like affect me about as much as seeing people with curly hair as straight hair. I'm forced to use such a classification because of history, and because people like to hoist artificial divisions on each other. And it pisses me off a bit, to be honest, that I unwillingly play a part in perpetuating this cycle of ignorance because people don't understand since they've been raised to believe that concepts like race and gender are manifestly accurate, they can't accept thinking outside of this artificial box. In Brazil, there are different concrete division of "races" based on skin colour, eye colour, hair texture, and so on. So there is no such thing as "black" or "white", but several divisions that lay in between. Ethnicity is a reality; biological sex is a reality. Depending on where you go, people have very different ideas about things such as "race" and "gender". And the amusing part? Scientifically, logically, and anthropologically, they're all wrong. Good luck trying to convince them, though.
I understand that the concept of race has affected history, and still affects us today, but being educated about the way the world truly is outside of our cultural niche would help to elevate us above such things.
~Ethno
