Our American racial and ethnic categories are absurd. Anyone with eyes can see that “White” people aren’t really white and “Black” people aren’t really black. An individual of Inca heritage from Peru is called “Hispanic” as is an individual from Spain. A person from Brazil is also called “Hispanic” though Brazilians generally speak Portuguese,not Spanish. An “Asian” could be from Mongolia, Pakistan, or Japan, places with people of very different appearance and culture. We refer to descendants of the first Americans as “Indians” even though they have no connection to India; alternatively we call them “Native Americans,” but people of any heritage who are born in America might reasonably claim the same title. The word, “Semitic,” is used as a synonym for Jewish, even though not all Jewish people are of the Semitic races, and most people of the Semitic races are neither Jewish nor descended from Jews.
Is the solution to revise our categories? Don’t bother. Absurdity is unavoidable when we divide Americans into racial and ethnic groups. Let’s skip the categorization and treat all Americans as individuals.
Here is a video of Sly Stone singing, “I’m an Everyday People.”
Posted 2022/11/23