I've been trying to decide lately whether I'm a closet racist. I thought perhaps you lot could help me out with this, so I've put together a couple questions, incidences, and conversations, etc. that may or may not be pointers to potential latent racism. Mind you, these are things I have said or thought in all seriousness, and not just general racial/ethnic comments made in passing or jest, or the ambient since of ethnocentricism we all inherently carry. That being said, I give you "Does that make me a racist?"
1. At the barber yesterday, I was trying to figure out the ethnicity of the guy in front of me. Anyone could tell he was Hispanic, but I know there are many different varieties of Hispanic people. And based on his complexion, facial features, stature, and accent, I specifically guessed he was Columbian long before he mentioned his Columbian descent to the barber. Does that make me a racist?
2. If you've talked to me for more than five minutes, then I've probably made mention of my Welsh and/or Scottish and/or Dutch blood. Does this constant reminding of my ethnicity, despite the fact that it's almost completely made up based on what I feel like telling you, make me a racist?
3. I make a distinction between American individuals of different European nationalities, even if they are third generation American or more, where most people just see another white person. Does my acute awareness of the distinguishing physical characteristics and historical migration patterns of various European goups make me a racist?
4. Because I am afflicted with a massive inferiority complex on top of this acute awareness of race, I often talk about groups of people who tend to be short in stature, just because the average individual of that race is shorter than me. Do my references to "little" Mexicans, Japanese, or Jun!huansi, (or "big" Samoans, Swedes, and Masai for that matter) make me a racist?
5. I have a fascination with the origins of language, and my ability to accurately imitate so many different accents and dialects comes in part from studying the grammar structure and history of other languages, and how aspects of that language affects the way those people speak English. In order to do this I have to identify and isolate geographic regions and ethnicities whose borders are defined by linguistic differences. Does my identification of, and intense focus on, the way specific groups of people talk make me a racist?
6. I hate Christians. In primitive tribal cultures, membership in the religion of the group is inherent in being born into the tribe, and therefore the religion and the race are one and the same. The Abrahamic religions, however, are universal religions, meaning that their doctrine is open to intellectual converts, and not just people born into the group. Despite this, Judaism and Islam still have a racial identity closely tied to the religion, where Christianity does not. So if I had a bias against say, a Yanomamo Indian, just for being Yanomamo, that would be racist, and the same for a Jew because of the way in which those religions ar also viewed as races, but does my bias against Christians on account of their Christianity (and my occasional acceptance of a Christian individual despite their association with Christianity) make me a racist? Or does that just mean I have standards?
That's all I've got for right now. Keep in mind that race is a social construct, not a biological one, and that there are hundreds of genetic variabilities that only tend to follow ethnic lines. What we think of as a race is defined socially, meaning the culture you are born into has an established idea of race that is often based more on cultural differences than physical. In Brazil, for example, people were polled as to what race they would ascribe to themselves, and over 400 answers were given, whereas in America we generally think of there being only about half a dozen major groups in the world. And just as a little side tidbit, there is more genetic variability in one family band of chimpanzees than in the entire human species.
So then, do you think any of that makes me racist? Or just a History major with sociology and linguistics interests?
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