In anticipation of releasing new podcasts in 2021, including with Armand Leroi and Alina Chan, I’ve been reposting some of my favorite conversations of the past few years in the last week of the current year. I'm counting down to the new year here by re-releasing a favorite past episode from the archives of my other podcast homes each day until 2021.
"White-presenting" is another term for "passing for white." When applied to people who are actually predominately white because of European DNA, it means "unworthy of the honor" of being what one actually is - white. Black-identified Americans (especially those of the intelligentsia) seem to be the most fanatical in their devotion to maintaining the myth that a white person is really "black" because of a minority of black ancestry even though, by doing so, they are validating the racist concepts of white racial purity AND black racial inferiority. Somehow, while the "one drop of black blood" myth is being politely repeated by the white American intelligentsia (to please their black-identified comrades)), we are supposed to politely ignore the very obvious and/or easily traced sub-Saharan African ancestry in Hispanics and Arabs.
In the name of a racist "one drop rule" that is now being presented as something progressive, blacks are allowed to claim almost anyone in Europe or the European diaspora.
I really respect the way you own your unique perspective Razib. We are similar in a lot of ways. Also politically, I lean right even though all my markers (Mex-Am, Compton raised, etc) would indicate otherwise. Its probably not a coincidence. Most people who dont see the world through ethnic eyes would probably lean right on many levels.
"White-presenting" is another term for "passing for white." When applied to people who are actually predominately white because of European DNA, it means "unworthy of the honor" of being what one actually is - white. Black-identified Americans (especially those of the intelligentsia) seem to be the most fanatical in their devotion to maintaining the myth that a white person is really "black" because of a minority of black ancestry even though, by doing so, they are validating the racist concepts of white racial purity AND black racial inferiority. Somehow, while the "one drop of black blood" myth is being politely repeated by the white American intelligentsia (to please their black-identified comrades)), we are supposed to politely ignore the very obvious and/or easily traced sub-Saharan African ancestry in Hispanics and Arabs.
In the name of a racist "one drop rule" that is now being presented as something progressive, blacks are allowed to claim almost anyone in Europe or the European diaspora.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/12/27/bridgerton-queen-charlotte-black-royals/
https://medium.com/@mischling2nd/its-not-rachel-dolezal-who-s-crazy-but-the-ridiculous-racist-and-contradictory-definitions-of-7a1da0a404f0
I really respect the way you own your unique perspective Razib. We are similar in a lot of ways. Also politically, I lean right even though all my markers (Mex-Am, Compton raised, etc) would indicate otherwise. Its probably not a coincidence. Most people who dont see the world through ethnic eyes would probably lean right on many levels.