crandc
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OK, dviss, hope you are still reading but would understand if you're not since a lot of shit was posted here. Interesting when you said person of color almost everyone thought Black and then thought poor. Funny, no one when they thought Black thought Barack Obama, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Alice Walker, Misty Copeland. And a lot of whitesplaining about what's wrong in the African-American community (they have bad families and Democrats give them too much free stuff so they became lazy, you know, like prima ballerinas and astrophysicists).
To answer your question - give me more information. Would this be a "Black Like Me" experience, where I would have a different skin tone/features but everything else the same? Same life to this point? Well, I'd be a fish out of water, for sure. Transgender people have tried to explain their feelings by asking how would a cis person feel if he/she woke up one day in the body of the opposite sex, but nothing else had changed? That's about how I'd feel. Born and raised white and Jewish and all of a sudden something else? Because "person of color" is not just about skin tone or features. If it were Misty Copeland would not be considered "Black" (look at her).
I went to college with, and now work with, a number of Asian women who were always totally focused. They, in college, had no social life, did not date, were not politically active, they were laser beams focused on their work and they are the same as adults. They are often rather insular. I wonder sometimes if they feel happy with this intense focus? Was it what they wanted or family/group pressure? I don't claim to know.
So is the "person of color" I become a Chinese woman with a Ph.D. in biochemistry leading a research team at Genentech? Or a working class Black lesbian? Or my Filipina dentist, African-American primary care doctor, Latina eye doctor (who I started going to when my Chinese eye doctor retired)?
Did I suddenly become a "person of color" or would I have been born and raised in a different culture? I think if you asked most African-Americans if they'd rather be white they'd say no. They have their own culture and identity they value and would probably not want to give it up. As a feminist I was often accused of wanting to be a man but I never did; I just wanted the same economic, social, cultural, political, sexual rights as men and a society that did not differentiate. And whatever straight men claim, I have never wanted to be hetero.
With no alternate universe, dviss, I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't know. If I suddenly became another "color" I would NOT like it because it would be like the cis person suddenly becoming the wrong gender; it would feel wrong because it would not be the culture/identity in which I have lived. Aside from how others treated me. OTOH, if I were born/raised in another culture, would I be happier? And which one? I can't say because there is no alternate universe. I know my experiences would definitely be different and I'd have more/different barriers.
Dviss, in another conversation I mentioned to you that when I, a midlife white woman, see a cop, I can figure he/she will either ignore me or politely greet me while you, a young African-American male, feel quite differently. But you can walk into a sports bar and see the Blazers on big screen TV; I, a woman, cannot.
I'm not sure if I'm being clear. I will not, like some, deny racism exists and it is NOT just the prejudices in people's heads, it is institutionalized just like discrimination against women is institutionalized. Would I want to experience racism? No. I do not enjoy sexism, homophobia, or anti-Semitism, not to mention the prejudice against older women and people with disabilities. I mean, dviss, don't I have enough headaches already?
To answer your question - give me more information. Would this be a "Black Like Me" experience, where I would have a different skin tone/features but everything else the same? Same life to this point? Well, I'd be a fish out of water, for sure. Transgender people have tried to explain their feelings by asking how would a cis person feel if he/she woke up one day in the body of the opposite sex, but nothing else had changed? That's about how I'd feel. Born and raised white and Jewish and all of a sudden something else? Because "person of color" is not just about skin tone or features. If it were Misty Copeland would not be considered "Black" (look at her).
I went to college with, and now work with, a number of Asian women who were always totally focused. They, in college, had no social life, did not date, were not politically active, they were laser beams focused on their work and they are the same as adults. They are often rather insular. I wonder sometimes if they feel happy with this intense focus? Was it what they wanted or family/group pressure? I don't claim to know.
So is the "person of color" I become a Chinese woman with a Ph.D. in biochemistry leading a research team at Genentech? Or a working class Black lesbian? Or my Filipina dentist, African-American primary care doctor, Latina eye doctor (who I started going to when my Chinese eye doctor retired)?
Did I suddenly become a "person of color" or would I have been born and raised in a different culture? I think if you asked most African-Americans if they'd rather be white they'd say no. They have their own culture and identity they value and would probably not want to give it up. As a feminist I was often accused of wanting to be a man but I never did; I just wanted the same economic, social, cultural, political, sexual rights as men and a society that did not differentiate. And whatever straight men claim, I have never wanted to be hetero.
With no alternate universe, dviss, I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't know. If I suddenly became another "color" I would NOT like it because it would be like the cis person suddenly becoming the wrong gender; it would feel wrong because it would not be the culture/identity in which I have lived. Aside from how others treated me. OTOH, if I were born/raised in another culture, would I be happier? And which one? I can't say because there is no alternate universe. I know my experiences would definitely be different and I'd have more/different barriers.
Dviss, in another conversation I mentioned to you that when I, a midlife white woman, see a cop, I can figure he/she will either ignore me or politely greet me while you, a young African-American male, feel quite differently. But you can walk into a sports bar and see the Blazers on big screen TV; I, a woman, cannot.
I'm not sure if I'm being clear. I will not, like some, deny racism exists and it is NOT just the prejudices in people's heads, it is institutionalized just like discrimination against women is institutionalized. Would I want to experience racism? No. I do not enjoy sexism, homophobia, or anti-Semitism, not to mention the prejudice against older women and people with disabilities. I mean, dviss, don't I have enough headaches already?
