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3 Questions for the Caucasians
Hello, I'm Asian and I'm curious. I have a few questions that I wish to get answers to. In my opinion, Caucasians have great variation in nearly every dynamic (e.g. looks, personality, beliefs, religious views, etc.) My first question is: Do Caucasians realize this (Are they consciously aware of how much they vary from even members of their own family?) Secondly, how do Caucasians perceive other Caucasians (E.g. Do Caucasians feel like every other white person is their cousin as sometimes portrayed on the media?) Lastly, are these variations an advantage or disadvantage ( A disadvantage could be that there could be less unity within communities like there are in brown communities, for example)
Comments
no
advantage (i don't want some shmo to consider me his cousin)
I was under the impression that if I were an asian born in an asian country I would feel the same way about asian people. Am I incorrect?
I feel no kinship among other white people solely because of race, theres so many white people why would there be any incentive to?
Edit: and I don't think it's just a "White Person" thing, but more of a "Western Culture" thing.
Second question: randomuser is right. There's no kinship among white people. None whatsoever.
"Variation" is an advantage. Any sort of "unity within communities" based on race is exactly the sort of collectivist shit that we should be striving to eradicate.
There are also disgustingly fat Caucasians, Brad Pitt/ Christina Aguilera level hot Caucasians... Going back to my first point, people of all ethnicities have variations. Ex: I am an Atheists with a particular interest in Islam and Confucianism while my two girl cousins are Christian Fundamentalists. Well, I am certainly not aware that there are any Asian operated services out there that help Asian families track who the fuc* is their 6th to 10th cousin. I mean, according to some genealogy charts, I also had at least three second cousins out there and I met their annually in family gatherings. However, I haven't even bothered asking what their name is.
One more thing, the media sometimes protrayed every other white person is their cousins?
That said, white cultures do definitely tend to be more forgiving about variation within families. It's not a huge deal for a child to do something totally different from their parents. I think that's a good thing. I'd hate to be an electrician like my dad.
The biggest problem with that concept is that it reduces minority status simply to race. Take, say, a sixth-generation Canadian-born Chinese person or a fourth-generation Indo-Canadian versus an Eastern European immigrant: who's had to overcome more linguistic, cultural, and economic (as a result of not being born in this country) barriers? It's a load of shit when you consider that sometimes "minorities" are given preference for jobs and graduate programs. The definition definitely needs to become more fucking substantive and less unfair.
/rant
I dont see collectivism by race, ethncity a a problem. Can u guys eplain a little more about it...and what would be an alternative criteria by which ppl can "unite".
This is just my opinion, but when u hear brown pride or asian pride, do you automatically think.."omg that guy hates black ppl"
All behavior and opinions are learned behavior, after all, not inherent.
And before any of you say North Americans have no culture, look around you--we are basking in North American culture... in all it's democratic, socialist, capitalist, individualistic, multi-cultural and freedom-loving, glory.
I think the sense of interconnectedness among each other is not so strong; I don't feel all other white people are my 'cousins' per se. As other posters have noted, collectivist instincts tend to be weaker in Western societies for a number of reasons. The implicit Biblical admonition to be your brother's keeper could use a little dusting off, IMO.
Finally I think this does lead to the question of 'unity' - but what is 'unity', exactly? I do think a white person might tend to want to interact more with a white person than a non-white person. Ultimately I think this is basically genetic, from the hundreds of thousands of years ago when something that didn't look like you might be something that would eat you.
Today, of course, it is very unlikely that anyone would want to eat someone else, but I have talked to several people who have admitted that their first instinct tends to be to approach someone of their own color first when they need something.
What if we just started classifying people by ear size, or height, or blood type?
All humans can interbreed which doesnt make sense to me why the term 'race' is even used like were all fundamentally different. The only thing that separates us all is the amount of that skin pigment melanin and how it manifests itself?
The main biological basis of skin color has been hypothesized to do with differential resistance to the presence of the UV radiation component of sunlight, which is why Northern Europeans are white while Asians are brown, and Africans range from brown to dark brown.
i dont understand how you are trying to mix a social concept with a purely biological construct
Of course in the present day, many of us have seen all kinds of people already but if we came across a new 'race', we would probably try to observe and learn about them, and form some generalizations about their culture which might lead to stereotypes.
Social constructs have nothing to do with evolution period, if you want to say social constructs (as in sterotypes) make humans social interactions easier, I can agree to that. Evolution on the other hand no, evolution is a bilogical concept, it should have nothing to with spurring social reactions. As opposed to something like 'flight or fight' when hormones and neurotransmitters, which would trigger a biological response developed through evolution. Touching a rock that was in a fire pit, you immediately jump back in fear and your body excites. An animal bites you, the same thing happens.
One counter point could be for example, poisonous snakes or something, with their coloring, where other animals avoid them cause of this coloring. But animals dont avoid them cause of the color, they avoid them because of the poison which is signified by color. I dont see how an asian person can prompt any biological reaction out of fear in anyone.