Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Theories of Mixture
I found the Cosmic Race to be a bit offensive in the way it categorizes people by their color and stresses the mixture as something intrinsically important. Mostly it just seemed out of touch with what is real and off base with it's presupposition that eliminating the concept of race is a way towards equality. I especially found it confusing that it referred to Atlantis which I thought was widely recognized as a myth in the academic world. I don't think that race as a general concept is worth talking about at this point in human civilization. In certain contexts it can be an interesting topic but I don't see what can be gained by dwelling on it as a general topic. People, especially in an international city like Vancouver, have diverse backgrounds and heritage but it doesn't necessarily have any implications on how they live their life on a day to day basis. I liked Peter Wade's article about mestizaje because it had interesting things to say about music and culture and how they mix in relation to different influences. Instead of focusing on the racial mixture as just a result of racially diverse relations it talked about the historical mixture of food and music. What is interesting about our differences is how it affects our lives on a day to day basis. I don't really consider my background because I'm white but when I eat some Slovak cuisine at my Grandmas or I go back to Minnesota and notice the Nordic influence on the region it's interesting. It doesn't have that much to do with my race as much as the transference of culture. I liked that he talked about music because it's transference transcends race completely. You can find musical styles like reggae or the blues in all corners of the world and each has a different style and direction which it took to get there.
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"Out of touch with reality" is a good way to describe The Cosmic Race. The entire thing seems to ignore truth in exchange for whatever will demonstrate his argument, no matter how simplistic or senseless. But his argument does have a potential which I would agree Peter Wade brings out very well.
ReplyDeleteHey.. I also found that The Cosmic Race was off base to say the least. The way he refers to Atlantis as if we are all in agreement that it was a real thing made me question the validity of the article, and just where the author was coming from. It seemed at first that i was reading a story, not someones actual and real oppinions.
ReplyDeleteHey I find it interesting that you never really think about your race in your everday life. When you walk around campus do you notice what ethincity you are in comparison to the other students around campus? You may not because of the fact that there are much more whiter people around campus. So in a sense not being a minority perhaps gives you the priviledge of not really needing to be aware of your racial difference. For me I am always aware of my skin colour, I don't necessarily consider myself black in the conventional way because sometimes I say i'm Ethiopian or African or Black or Brown... It depends... Anyways its interesting to see how other people view themselves and how aware they are of their "race" and why that is so?
ReplyDeleteI, like sushi89, found it interesting as well that you don't really think about your race in everyday life. For me, it's a bit different. Although I have not always been aware of my skin colour, as sushi89, recently I have become more aware. I grew up with mainly Caucasian friends, and was pretty much unaware of being any different from them. As I grew older, I noticed differences between me and my friends, in the values we held and the way we were brought up. I attribute this difference to my Japanese parents. While I got along great with these friends, we WERE different. Anyways, I guess basically I feel that while race shouldn't be a huge divide between people, it can affect one's everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI find the discussion about "being aware of its race in everyday life" quite interesting so I would like to add something. I agree with sushi89's sentence: "So in a sense not being a minority perhaps gives you the priviledge of not really needing to be aware of your racial difference". In multicultural cities like Vancouver, it's true that races are mixed and hopefully people don't pay too much attention to it but for instance I remember when I was in the Latino district of San Francisco I felt different because people were speaking another language and I didn't look like them physically so I think too that everybody could feel different in any place in the world where they belong to the minority.
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