Quote:
Originally Posted by Donna-501
How many interracial couples have you talked to? How about their kids that have identity problems?
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Look, I knew quite a few people that were of mixed-race when I was growing up. I had a half black friend when I was in junior-high, who became obsessed with race, and trying to "act black". I'm part native-American, not a whole lot. Of course something like 30% of Americans are "part indian", and I live in Oklahoma where it seems like almost everyone is part indian.
Regardless of the relative acceptance level, it makes it really difficult to sort of identify with one group or another. What is your history? What is your family's history? And this sort of racial identification is more than just white or black or native-American. There is even a level of ethnic identification also. I lived in Florida for a while, and you don't want to call a Cuban a Mexican, they get quite offended. The same rule applies for many other groups also.
I actually made my uncle mad one time, because I referred to our original family name as being "French", so I made the statement that we are "French". He said no, our family name came from Normandy, which was settled by vikings, so we are vikings(he hates the French). And our family moved from Normandy to England after William the Conquerer took England in 1066. Then we went to Ireland because we were catholics when England went protestant. And then we came to America during the potato famine in the mid 1800's. That is just the part of my family tree where my Grandfather came from. On my grandmothers side, they were German immigrants, and I have no idea when they came over. My like great-great grandfather married a cherokee woman, but I don't know much history other than that. Both sides of my family came to Oklahoma in the land run, and lived in northeastern Oklahoma(my mother was born in Afton, Oklahoma). You wouldn't really take me for being part Indian from looking at me. A friend of mine that lived in New York much of his life, said I would most likely look more Greek or Turkish.
Regardless, I have found that most people tend to like to cling to the part of their family lineage that they find the most appealing, or is the most reflective of the person they see themselves as being. And that image can have a profound effect on their views on life and their personality. And people that look obviously mixed, can have a distorted view of themselves, especially since others may not see them in the same way as they see themselves.
School counselors' perceptions of biracial children: a pilot study | Professional School Counseling | Find Articles at BNET
Interracial Marriages and Biracial Children | Education.com
There has been growing issues of where these mixed-race persons fit into our racially-charged society. Especially in some of the most economically deprived areas of the country, which tend to point their fingers at "white Americans" for many of the problems in their communities.
http://www.intermix.org.uk/news/news_210905_01.asp
Quote:
Originally Posted by RCCCB
There is a little bit of our neighbor's DNA in each of us.
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There is a little bit of our neighbor's DNA in all of us, true. But by saying that, is an attempt to downplay our differences. And our differences are quite vast.
Lets look at intelligence, height, weight, personality, temper, patience, social capacity, talents and abilities, etc. Do you really think we are all born some equal shell and we develop our abilities based on our environment? Do you really think those mentally challenged kids are that way because their parents didn't teach them anything? While height and weight have no absolute importance, a persons personality will largely be formed from how people treat them and interact with them. If they are tall, thin, and good looking, their personality will probably be far different than if they were fat, short, and ugly.
Your genes either have a direct effect on your mental development(such as in the case of IQ scores, autism/social issues, talents, etc). And while environment does play a role too, your genes are such a huge part of who you are. It is why two people can be raised in the same environment and be so much different. Or why two twins raised apart, tend to still be very similar.
I don't presume for a moment that any group of people are superior or inferior to the other. But I do acknowledge that there are huge differences in average expression of genetic traits from one group to another. And there are many genetic traits that are completely non-existent in one group, and extremely common in another.
To pretend that no differences exist between us is to blind yourself to the world. To pretend that randomly mixing people together won't change our world in more than just the color of our skin, is plain ignorant. The studies that have been done so far, place mixed-race children as generally being an average of their parents in their genetic traits. Such as hormone levels, development rates, intelligence scores, physical abilities, and obviously height and appearance.
The question is, how important is being able to run quickly or jump long distances, or the ability to swim more easily and longer distances, and how important is flexibility, and how important is relative intelligence. Do our differences make us better people? Do our differences make us happier? If so, then by destroying our differences, we are dooming ourselves. If our differences hurt us, then destroying those differences should be priority #1.
I would say on a social level, most people are looking forward to the day that racism dies out. Most people want an egalitarian society. But most people realize that racism cannot truly die until race dies, until ethnicity dies, until religion dies, until language dies. The only way man could see each other as equal, is if we truly are equal. Because humans are tribal, they look for reasons to be divided, and there really isn't much that can be done to change that.
The problem is that, between the time this whole process begins until it is finally realized. Our world will be worse off than it would be if we had just stayed apart. As racism is the wedge that divides us socially and politically. As certain groups are better at certain things(such as sports), and others are better at others. The inequality that comes out of the system will continue to paralyze our society, and create violence and discontent across it. There is no doubt in my mind why small-homogenous nations tend to be the happiest countries, and the more diverse nations tend to have the most instability and discontent.
ParaPundit: Affluent Homogeneous Small Countries Happiest
I am just fearful that the world of the future will simply be worse than the world of today. I feel like interracial marriages are simply part of a larger problem, stemmed by the loss or changing of America's values. Which I believe America's values of the past are what made this nation great in the first place. I don't believe you could have taken the values and beliefs of say, Saudi Arabians or Indonesians, and implanted them into the beginning of this country, and for it to have turned out anywhere near what it is today. I believe the loss of identity will necessarily destroy much of our history and traditions. I believe that this loss of history and identity will cause most future Americans to become basically ignorant shells, who are easily controlled by the influential few, corruption will be widespread as government is taking a larger and larger role in our lives. Especially considering the influx and growth of populations that have traditionally not excelled in the fields of science and technology(and who have consistently scored poorly on all standardized testing that attempts to measure the capacity to learn and apply concepts and logic).
But really, I just feel like we would be much happier if we were separated into small countries, that could better represent our individual values and culture. The concept of diversity has been an absolute failure.
http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/jt_diver.html
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Great Topic !
Also there are a heap of folks who perfer to remain within their own black & white race for relationships and such.