What makes a person a particular race?

[Valmy]

Is your sister an angry black chick?

Why does she have to be a black chick eh?  Why can't she just be a chick?

[HVC]

That assumes that natural selection will stop selecting for skin color appropriate to latitude.

Um...I live in a place hardly suitable for people of Anglo-Saxon ancestry and last I checked our ability to reproduce has not been hindered by the evil yellow face in the sky.

Have you ever tried to have sex witha sunburn? i imagine it hurts like a bitch. i few more hole sin the ozone layer and the white race shall die in texas

[garbon]

It sounds like your sister and I would get along great.  I used to really lash out in fury at the whole acting white or black thing.

I have mellowed out as I have gotten older though.

The stereotypes of said groups exist though, and since such labels are really perpetuated labels (based on both color and actions), I can't see the harm in speaking with such terms.

[Valmy]

I'm sorry, but your black grandmother and your blue eyes do not qualify you for being black. Your brother's brown eyes, however, and kinky hair qualifies him.

Which is why race, as mixed people become more common, will be more and more absurd.

[HVC]

Is your sister an angry black chick?

Why does she have to be a black chick eh?  Why can't she just be a chick?

Hey,i don't make the rules... i just rigidly follow them

[Valmy]

Have you ever tried to have sex witha sunburn? i imagine it hurts like a bitch. i few more hole sin the ozone layer and the white race shall die in texas

Texans of any race don't go outside in the summer anyway.  Too damn hot

[garbon]

Is your sister an angry black chick?

I don't presume to speak for her, but like what Valmy said, I suggest she'd give you a quizzical look. I don't think she'd call herself black anymore than she would call herself white.

[dps]

Its just absolutely implausible, and I hear it often enough that I had to snort. If breeding was random instead of selection based, perhaps then sure. But as it is? Some dystopian nightmare from a world-that-isnt, and nothing more.

It only takes a couple each generation Lettow.  It won't happen today or tommorow but someday and gradually.

That assumes that natural selection will stop selecting for skin color appropriate to latitude.

As long as we don't have a social collapse that leads to a dropping of our technology level, it probably will stop.  As much time as most people spend indoors, it hardly matters.

[merithyn]

Of course this statement would piss my sister off mightily, she's convinced that one can't act white or act black.

She's mistaken. I act more Mexican than I act white when I'm with my Mexican family and more white than Mexican when with my white family. At the same time, I act more white trash when with some of my family and more upper-white class when with others. My accent even changes depending on whom I'm speaking to when.

It's not conscious; it's just something that happens. In fact, I never even realized I did it until Max pointed it out to me. *shrugs*

[Valmy]

The stereotypes of said groups exist though, and since such labels are really perpetuated labels (based on both color and actions), I can't see the harm in speaking with such terms.

I know.  Even though I think it is wrong I just have to accept stereotypes as part of being human.  Becoming more tolerant of foibles is just part of growing up.

[HVC]

Is your sister an angry black chick?

I don't presume to speak for her, but like what Valmy said, I suggest she'd give you a quizzical look. I don't think she'd call herself black anymore than she would call herself white.

As a minority i assume the right to use stereotypes!

[garbon]

Here's the part that confuses me. What is "plausibly considered black"? I'm sure, at some point my families 400 years in the United States, there was a black ancestor. Yes, I'm lily white now, but it stands to reason that somewhere, there was a black person between the sheets with a white one, even if the white one didn't know.

Do we go with the "one drop" rule? Or do we require documentation for "blackness" like we do for "Native American"?

College entrance committee: I'm sorry, but your black grandmother and your blue eyes do not qualify you for being black. Your brother's brown eyes, however, and kinky hair qualifies him.

I've always wondered if people actually check up on that. Like when would a college check?

That said, I suppose there is no harm in trying for the minority box?

[garbon]

Which is why race, as mixed people become more common, will be more and more absurd.

My people.

Actually it saddens me somewhat to know that my mother was concerned about marrying my father as she was concerned about how people might treat her children.

[garbon]

She's mistaken. I act more Mexican than I act white when I'm with my Mexican family and more white than Mexican when with my white family. At the same time, I act more white trash when with some of my family and more upper-white class when with others. My accent even changes depending on whom I'm speaking to when.

It's not conscious; it's just something that happens. In fact, I never even realized I did it until Max pointed it out to me. *shrugs*

Except that Mexican functions as a national label. I'm not really sure there is a Black nation.

*prepares to be beat down by the nation*

[Maximus]

I've always wondered if people actually check up on that. Like when would a college check?

That said, I suppose there is no harm in trying for the minority box?

I've wondered the same thing. If I tried to claim I was black would I get more than odd looks?