Glenn Robinson (that's me)

There's a new book by Tiffany Rae Reid about how to raise a 'biracial' child which got me thinking what a book would say about raising a 'mono-racial' child.

Society would label me 'mono-racial' despite the fact that I don't believe in the notion of pure 'races', nor the notion of biological 'races'.

I had to decipher my own identity as an adult.

I was not taught why 'white' became a racialized term; that 'races' were invented to divide humans politically and in turn justify theft of land and resources, and justify slavery and oppression.

I was not taught the difference between 'white' culture and 'white' phenotype; that any phenotype can have 'white' culture; that 'white' culture actually means European culture.

I was not taught to embrace the term European-American. I was not taught to recognize my foreignness in the Americas. I was not taught that I am a guest in the Americas; that I am descended from families of invaders who used their technology (guns) to bully their way and murder their way onto Native American territory.

I was never told that I had the option (or even better - the responsibility) to reject the 'white' label for what I really am, a European American living on Native American land.



Glenn is a European-American married to a Mexican-American. They have two children. Glenn is interested in progressive immigration reform, and desegregation within schools and communities. He is a life long learner with interests in sociology, anthropology, psychology, history and politics.
Connect to Glenn at CommunityVillage.us

Has anyone seen research where the researcher asks children, instead of a closed ended question like "Who is the smart one" but instead "Are all phenotypes equally nice and equally smart?" (Children may not know what a phenotype is but that creates a good opportunity to explain that a phenotype is only skin deep). Children can then be asked to explain their answer and where they learned their knowledge or stereotypes. Maybe they learned it from TV, radio, friends, students, family or even their parents.


CNN's full story here



Glenn is a European-American married to a Mexican-American. They have two children. Glenn is interested in progressive immigration reform, and desegregation within schools and communities. He is a life long learner with interests in sociology, anthropology, psychology, history and politics.
Connect to Glenn at CommunityVillage.us

Black People Created White People



Africans Created Mexicas



Asians Created Native Americans 

The terms "race"*, culture and ethnicity used alone are confusing. To clarify we should add a modifying word. These modifiers in italics illustrate how we can sharply clarify our meaning.


biological "race"
vs
socio-political "race"


cultural heritage: the culture that our ancestors gave to us
vs
cultural group: the cultural that we are grouped into now, today


ethnic heritage: the combination of biology and culture from our ancestors
vs
ethnic group: the combination of biology and assimilated culture we have now, today


Why the quotation marks around "race"?
I use quotation marks around the word "race" because there has always been controversy over how many biological "races" exist. Is "race" supposed to be a broad category of people or a narrow category of people? There is so much controversy and confusion with "race" as to invalidate the effective meaning of the word. Furthermore, many anthropologists do not believe in biological "race". See the NOVA article: Does Race Exist? and the PBS article 10 Things You Should Know About Race.


Scientifically Speaking
cline and haplogroup are broad categories
haplotype, genotype and phenotype are narrow categories


Why should I be concerned about using the term race?
The traditional five "races" do not describe the true variety of human kind. Furthermore, grouping people into "races" is dehumanizing and akin to thinking of people as breeds. Even if we are "breeds", mutts and pedigrees, none of us want to think of ourselves in those terms. The outdated concept of biological "race" has lead to racism and colorism, both of which still exists. In order to move away from these biases and to keep our humanity and dignity we should label ourselves "human" and avoid the divisive and outdated term "race".

Why would it be okay to use the scientific words for race?
It makes more sense to use the scientific words because it acknowledges the complexity or our differences without oversimplifying our reality. i.e. the way the one drop myth has oversimplified the complexity of our mixedness.


Chart from J. D. McDonaldTo see what each haplogroup looks like click the "Genetic Markers" button at the bottom of https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/lan/en/atlas.html

See that little gene below? Well, one physical change from that one gene (let's say green eyes) creates a haplotype of a green eyed person. All the green eyed people together are a haplogroup of green eyed people.