What do you think your philosphy of race is and what do y'all think about the Theory of Racelessness? What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? What do you think needs more work to make such a thing possible? CC's will be up for this and my last video by the end of the week! Raul has been VERY busy with exams and just life!
I think I am personally a constructionist and an eliminativist. I would say that I am a skeptic, but there seems to be a bit of a contradiction in it? Like there is the part that denies that race exists (I agree), but I can't really get rid of the idea that it is like an actual thing that has real effects, regardless of the importance of skin color... I hope that makes sense. However, I do agree that the ultimate goal of "solving" racism and that kind of stuff is to start to dismantle systems that promote it, or as you and Dr. Mason put it, leveling out the statistical distributions. I also really liked what you said towards the end where you were kinda saying that there are these perceived differences, but in the end it's superficial, and ideally we should be looking past them. That has been my view for a long time on most social issues, mainly that the differences that some people focus on do not actually matter in the grand scheme of things, and ultimately should be ignored when you are discussing someone or whatever. But at the same time, you kind of have to reckon with the fact that these perceived issues are real things that have tangible effects on our world and we should address these real problems. Bit of a dilemma.
I think I'm between constructivist and skeptical after watching this video. like race isn't real but racism has very tangible effects. im still working through my thoughts but this was very interesting. im really not sure how racelessness could be achieved realistically due to white supremacy, though.
I really tried to get a different perspective, but the skeptic and eliminativist is giving BIG "I don't see race" energy which is extremely harmful and invalidating towards those most affected by it. I get that's not the intention, but it still overlaps with many of those points
I think that it's a dangerous president to set for as long as corporations are considered people. Because even legally they are the supreme people by virtue of their limited laws for regulation paired with the lack of accountability. You can't put a whole corporation into a penitentiary for homicide, in fact it's actually legal for a corporation to commit homicide because of the lack of laws. Imagine when humans get stripped completely of our residual rights because everyone is overlooking the 14th amendment and proceeding laws stripping human rights ....... It could absolutely get worse if you overlook the specifics in the laws and what needs to be amended first. It's like how the n azi s got away with using "socialism" and bait n switching to totalitarianism. There's nuance that is needed and a s ses (humans) to cover you know?
Honestly hadn't thought about race as much while I was in the Caribbean cause I was in a predominantly Black country however when I got came to the states - I became HYPER self-aware of the fact that I'm a Big Black man and some ppl might only see me as that.
My dad was from Jamaica. He went to Los Angeles in 1952 for a holiday for 2 weeks. He told me that he didn't know he was "black" till he was in LA.. He said people kept telling him and his friends like it was a negative. It's not. He stayed 3 days he and his friends hated LA. (Due to the fact that they where afraid. They had never felt like that before. And wanted to go home) I recently saw an interview with Supermodel Iman she said the same thing.. That she didn't know she was black till she came to the USA.
@@VeeLondon1449 Let’s just take a likkle moment to appreciate di GRAVITY of the fact that a Black person can grasp racism in as little as 2 WEEKS yet we still av yamheads claiming that it don’t exist 😮💨
this is interesting, i grew up in puerto rico n its very common to see what in the us ppl call mixed people and black people (i never thought of ppl in these distinctions, only as puerto rican) so even though im white passing i also experienced this hyper awareness of race n realizing that ppl in the states see n interact w race wayy differently
It’s like saying unhoused vs homeless or enslaved vs former slave, it highlights the societal and/or structural systems that allow things to continue in the way they have or the inherent lack of choice involved in the status
I also like it’s inherent fluidity. “Racialization” adjusts depending on era, location, appearance, and context. It shifts and its boundaries are fuzzy and somewhat subjective. It feels more like the verb it is rather than a concretely fundamental “inherent” characteristic.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot, lol, came back to share, I realized we should be saying ethnicity or something else if we are actually referring to it in conversation, it’s more accurate, much easier too than being like “I’m black but(insert this part of the diáspora and assoc history”) I even think Khadijah did it in the video
You should read the Isis papers by doctor frances cress welsing because we FBA/DOAS aren't intrested in surrendering to white supremacy like you guys are...no wonder your home countries are in shambles because you refuse to build it up you want whitey to do all the work and what's even more disturbing is how you people just ran away instead of stay and make your countries better
Thank you so much for inviting me to share my theory of racelessness. I had fun and learned along the way. If anyone takes anything generative away from this video, I’ll be glad. 💛💛💛
Thanks to you both so much for collaborating I do think people to this day fear retaliation when it comes to building the true rainbow coalition. You both are an inspiration to be authentic and have the courage to challenge things that are harmful but still around due to their usefulness in keeping things unchanged. People fear change and they also fear being the one to inspire change. Your courage is on full display and I love it! ❤️
I see the appeal of the eliminationist point of view. In a way, removing racism may also remove the concept of race. At the same time I am having a hard time agreeing with the skeptic point of view: so many people make their own race a key part of their own identity, so many people believe in race, and that's what kinda makes it real as a social construct, right? At the same time, I see how race can just be racism in disguise, and how one would not exist without the other: but still I see them both real as a social constructs (thightly associated, not fully distinct from each other). Maybe a good strategy would be to have eliminationism as a long term goal, without simply dismissing it as utopian, while basing smaller "day to day" battles on reconstructionist policies? OMG I love this video my brain is expanding!
I think there are other things that could be a key part of people's identity long term: like ethnicity. I think even for latinos & asians in America there's a bit more of ethnicity going on: people talk about being Columbian-American or Japanese-American, and while I see that in the black American community I also see people grieving their ethnicities in that way, I've seen black Americans online talk about how they don't know where they're from. Maybe an alternative for racial pride in the long term could be pride about ethnicity. I think community is so important in any society and I think race does provide a sense of that for some people. Just my two cents. My brains in the same place that yours is, thinking about what long term things to strive for and how can we start taking those steps! Please reply back if you disagree with me or have anything to add.
@@hannaheve868 I see what you mean. In a way the perceived race is what is left even after ethnic and cultural differences are lost. A fifth, sixth generation Asian American may have lost all ties to their ancestors culture (no language, no rituals or traditions, no cuisine) but still be perceived (and perceive themselves) as a different race. Is this racism? Probably, to some extent
You and I had the same journey and destination. Thinking I need to give the whole CRT series a rewatch to fully digest it though. Between that and FD Signifier’s video on White Existential Dread, this has been a real growth year for me.
My mentor Jacoby Carter at Howard University is a social constructionist eliminativist! One needn't be a skeptic to be an eliminativist. I do think skepticism is more effective toward the goal of "eliminating" racism, though, since most constructionists still fall into the trap of naturalism, which is deeply rooted with racism. Still, one can be a constructionist and call for the whole thing to be destroyed...without also partaking in unintentionally upholding the hierarchy. I think I mention some strategies that can help, like including the word "racialized" before a "race" concept. At least, if one is a constructionist, one can point to the construction...consistently and significantly. :) I was a constructionist...up until I realized I was a skeptic. LOLOL That was a very recent happening.
Khadija may not realize it, but they are forming and teaching a whole generation of adolescents, and they are doing it correctly. Amazing! 👏👏👏 *Edit* Thanks to everyone for letting me know about their correct pronouns! I also completely agree with the fact that Khadija is teaching us all, young and adult, we're never too grown to learn more and grow as people!
*has previously discussed not entirely identifying as a woman Agreed, their videos are very eye opening, I appreciate how they can make informative dialogue engaging, this especially enables access for neurodiverse people :)
OMG YOU HAVE GIVEN THIS A NAME! I called it ‘conscious colourblindness”, acknowledging the outcomes the racism and race, but creating a world where race doesn’t matter anymore
And like. I don't enough ti have an opinion. Especially on race related things. However. People making it an "either or." Revolution OR incrimental change. Inside AND outside the system. I want to win. "If you believe you can change the system from the inside, you're not doing enough." "You want to burn everything down? You're a filthy radical." I want to fucking WIN. Unarmed Black folks not being murdered by police? A win. Indigenious folks getting water? That's a win. Trans people, poor people, and others being seen as human? A win Reducing C02 emissions? A win. People being protected from this virus, vaccination world wide? Preping our systems to better handle the next one? And climate disaster? a WIN. I want the goals to get done. In the system, outside of the system. Both. Neither. I just want to get it done. I just want to win. Period.
Indeed. It is! I encourage folks to consider how reconstruction alone isn’t enough…but eliminativism requires the process of reconstruction to achieve its end.
This actually reminds me of this theory I heard about disability : disabled people aren't really disabled, but rather society makes them so because of the barriers it puts towards them. If society was more accessible, would they still be perceived as disabled ?
This definitely opened up mind tbh i think that they would still be SEEN physically disabled but in terms of disabled people having more availability then probably not.
What you are referring too is the social model of disability. It’s the pretty well accepted theory in academia and within disability advocacy. It’s the reason why learning disorders, such as ADHD or dyslexia, are considered disabilities within an educational environment now, but not necessarily in a workplace environment.
The social model of disability only takes us so far. Disability justice and the movement associated with the ideology expands to chronically ill, mentally ill, mentally disabled, and even terminally ill people, who still experience struggles outside of the social model. Improving ramps is not going to make a bedbound person able to leave their bed. Making walkable cities is not going to stop someone from having a fainting attack because of POTS. There are just some obstacles that cannot be overcome--dyspraxia makes your balance wobbly, dyscalculia affets your ability to process language as well as numbers and spatial awareness. This doesn't mean the social model of disability has its uses and benefits, it just doesn't take things as far as the disability justice movement does. The social model of disability doesn't address sanism, for example.
@@gamingwhilebroken2355 Adult ADHD is absolutely a disability; it has an extreme impact on social aspects, but it's still debilitating even without that. Like... It can affect basic life tasks, like eating and grooming and finances and such. It's the single most debilitating outpatient psychiatric disorder, in fact. (Although it's also the one that responds the best to medication)
@@isthiscereallifeI'm not so sure though. A disabled person is turned into a separate class through ableism. If a bed bound person was accommodated without drawn out process and integrated socially still, that would be drastically different. The reason this is the defining attribute of a person, is thier relationship to production, is the capitalist mode of production and individualist brainwashing. Most of us lose mobility, and start with none, then we talk about ageism
Ma'am you're giving us entire academic courses in race. But worded in a way that is really easy to understand. I am eternally grateful. Genuinely. You are an incredible teacher.
Loved this video, I think it'll stay in the back of my mind for a while. It's quite common to hear online Europeans say "you're making it about race"/"you Americans are so obsessed with race". I am European myself so I can kind of understand where that sentiment comes from, but I've come to recognize that this sentence is often a way to dismiss any argument against inequality. So I've learned to agree that colourblindness is a bad mindset, yet part of me always felt there was more to it, and I think this video gave me the answer. After the second war, a lot of Europeans were terrified of the idea of race because of its potential consequences. In fact, I don't know how to put it but the word "race" in french sounds more racist than the word "race" in English, simply because in France the subject is not talked about in these terms. The mantra was basically "there is only one race, the human race, repeat it until you perish". I learned about segregation, apartheid, slavery etc in school, but modern-day discrimination wasn't brought up and this rigid attitude towards the concept of race doesn't really allow for the vocabulary to talk about race. Critical race theory solves that problem, as it lays the framework behind racism. But at the same time, learning about race in that way gives more meaning and heaviness to it. I distinctly remember hearing and seeing as a child singers like Rihanna, Beyonce and Whitney Houston, and my mind never registered any of them as black. I didn't know much about these women (and I couldn't understand english), but if you'd asked me then to list the differences between Rihanna and a white pop star, I would've probably said their style of music or something. Then I was out of the loop for mainstream music so it took a few years for me to hear someone use the word "black" when talking about Rihanna, and it actualized my perception of her. It wasn't a revelation or anything: even as a child I could tell she had darker skin and certain features, but my mind never joined the dots and put her in that category. Understanding english, getting accustomed to american culture and learning about race gave me a better understanding of racism, but I can still feel the appeal of that worldview where race doesn't really matter and is seen more as an old concept. Racelessness as you explain it seems to be ideal, as it throws away race from its pedestal without discarding racism.
Same here (Scandinavia). I remember just last year some politician proudly announcing that racism doesn’t exist in this country because “we have laws against that”. Just yesterday a survey showed that dark skinned people are much more likely to be unlawfully stopped by police, but the police themselves made a statement rejecting the color of skin as the reason. Local BLM protests were widely regarded as silly and completely unnecessary. Even colonization of the West Indies and result slavery, when people actually started talking about it as problematic a couple of years ago, was regarded as “just a part of history and nothing to be sorry for”. It’s stupid crazy to me how afraid people in Europe are of talking about these things. And maybe because it’s all been on a relatively small scale compared to the US, it’s easier to lie and omit facts, but it also compounds the problem the further we go because nobody - except the people experiencing it - can imagine racism being a thing and certainly not something they could inadvertently be guilty of.
I think you are confused about the concept of colorblindness.Colorblindness its the philosophy that people should be seen as people regardless of the race and that principle should be applied to law.
This ain't just food for thought, Issa whole buffet. Thank you for your rigorous knowledge sharing❤️ what's standing out to me in particular is the race-ethnicity-culture distinction and how we navigate that under the theory of racelessness.
CRT is necessary. But we have sooooo much to fix in the education system, infrastructure, prison, policing, healthcare, food regulation, social life, immigration etc. we got a lot to do.
@@annechief4165 It’s really not. The fact it preaches that everything is racist or only certain groups can be racist when really everyone is capable of racism is a red flag and is not needed because it creates further division. Instead we should focus on fixing the eduction system and understanding that race and how it’s viewed can be complex with a lot of gray area. For example contrary to popular belief white people were not the only ones to have slaves or oppress back people in the US. Rich black people had slaves and even Native Americans had slaves that not only worked their plantations, but were used to procreate with in an attempt to make up for a tribes small numbers, but in doing this they were still just seen as slaves and didn’t have rights in the tribe. It truly is a disservice how history isn’t looked at full circle in the US.
@@tiahnarodriguez3809 OMG, thank you. I always say history should be taught and people tell me, that is what crt is, which is the opposite. People that want it are the ones that really don’t know what it is about.
I guess that makes me a constructionist eliminativist. The way I see it, race isn't real, but people believe it is and that effects peoples lives in very tangible ways, in other words a social construct, however, it is first and foremost a hollow institution that has done little more than create needless suffering, ergot, along with a host of other such things, it must ultimately be disposed of. There was a time before it, there can be a time after it. People are treated poorly because they are categorized one way and that manifests in a number of ways such as mass incarceration, over policing, and a whole host of other issues. It is a fiction, but a dangerous one. It's a lot like money. Money only has the value it does because people are invested in the notion that it has this inherent concrete value and money sure as hell has caused more pain than it's worth.
Tbh I don't agree over all that money has caused more suffering than it is worth because we have enabled every single opportunity in the world because of the invention of money. I agree there has been a lot of pain, but not more than the love and happiness it has generated.
Intellectually I know race doesn't have any merit beyond the history we have created around it. That is the struggle we have to get past in order to free ourselves from the devisive idea of race.
It’s complicated!!! I felt emotionally exhausted after watching this video. I think you did a great job attempting to explain this subject that you’re not an expert in. I really appreciate the expert consultant. Keep up the good work.
It’s interesting because in my country (Sweden) we do not talk about “race”, it would kind of feel offensive? Race is something we talk about when we talk about dog races for example. When it’s about humans we talk about ethnicities and there is only one “race”, the “the human race”. But it’s important to keep in mind that Sweden has a very complicated history with “race biology”
That's true for whole Europe becausr of the Nazi and it's actually a huge issue because it makes it really difficult to talk about racism, because Europeans really cling to colourblindness.
@@chicquie5471 not classifying humans as different races has nothing to do with colorblindness. Race theory is the root cause for for genocides (no not only in Nazi Germany), slave trade, colonialism. The problem in Europe is that many people struggle with different cultures and lifestyles which leads to racism. That is the problem we have to tackle. What is the white race? What is the black race? After how many generations do you transition to another race bc you are not visibly white /black anymore? Do we go back into color charts and measuring facial features to cluster people into races? Like Nazis did with Jews and Sinti and Roma? Or what happened with the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda? Its a social construct and one that has brought a lot of evil and damage to the human world
There are some black americans in Sweden who promote this social cunstructonism and black identity. I think its because their race is their identity, where as other immigrants would just talk about their country or religion. Also they want to be seen as different maybe.
I think the heart of all of this is identity. We grow up seeing everyone put in categories. People expect certain personality traits, likes, dislikes, habits, etc from just about anything, not just skin color. For instance, an American eats a lot of junk food, someone who dresses "goth" wouldn't like country music, old ladies have to be sweet and wholesome. We are all individuals. We can be so many things and we shouldn't have to feel pressured to be a certain way. That's why the whole coconut/oreo thing is so ignorant. People are so much more than their color and they're also more than their ethnicity. There may be cultural norms, but everyone deviates from them - that's being an individual.
In my mind I always sound as good as Khadija, but the words never come out right so I end up sounding "racism bad" like idk how people can vocalize so well exactly what they want without messing up!
Honestly would be much better if we were just individuals with varying cultural/ethnic influences full-stop. Sounds a lot better than just turning entire continents into blobs like Avatar the Last Airbender
In defense of ATLA it is a recurring theme in the comics after the war that zuko leaves the colonies and starts a “comunity restoration” with the Avatar, in which they try to separate who is what race and send them back to fire nat to “restore balance”. Which is something that toph, their friend who actually lives in one of those cities and has a metal bending school, oposes as well as the people living those mixed communities. It is seen as a conflict between interests, with main characters in opposing sides, i don’t think the creators just made them separate blobs out of bias but actually played into how they interact between themselves too
@Lauri London What? No I mean as in dividing the world into like 5 different groups like Avatar does (Air, Earth Fire etc.) Avatar is okay though since this is legitimately how the lore works haha
I feel like social constructivist eliminationism is possible. Saying "race isnt real, it shouldnt be real, and we should work to make it less legitimized." whilst simultaneously acknowledging that racialized black people are in danger of police brutality, or that indigenous women are being killed and trafficked at an exponential rate.
That is a more powerful and consistent message than " Discriminating against black people is bad, but we should still be seen as different". Pointing out that people act racist works, because you oppose racist ideology in every way.
I agree, but hesitate. Because we do have different histories. Many black communities in America are historic and are the descendents of enslaved peoples. That has radically shaped and affected their trajectories, and that will always be true even when people stop being racialized.
This has given me the courage to, as a proud black woman, finally come to terms with something: ion really be seasoning my food like that. Like…. I’m good with just salt and pepper. It don’t even have to be a lot.
When I was living in Peru, I was the 1 out of 3 black people in my class, but once I moved to South Africa I learned that there I wasn’t considered black because my parents were black and another race mixed people. It was so hard to explain it that I just started identifying with the term latina or mixed to avoid having to explain how race works in my origin country. (it was also interesting when they used my origin country for a race study in my anthropology class)
eliesundesastre it was a study that I was not conducting, but by someone else in my uni, and their main focus was if the word “black” to refer to someone’s race should be changed in the context of South Africa, because of all the different ethnic groups and foreign African countries’ group that exist in the country and how “black” doesn’t define them all. So for that, Brazil was used as an example of another meaning that people use for what a “black person” looks like and the experiences they might go through. I’ll try to find out if they have published the study and update you if they have!
@@larissa6732 Wow, that must've been a cool academic experience. Studies like that are such a cool opportunity for nuance. And I would love updates when it's done! 🤗
Frida Saavedra ikr, I can count on one hand how many times we touched on race at school and I don’t think I was ever singled out for my race, it was confusing when I got to another country where they didn’t think of me as black and the reason why I would be “black” were based on stereotypes and on the “one drop rule”
I was just thinking I'm going to need to watch this a couple times to grasp it when you got to the part where you said that's OK and it took you awhile. This is one of your more definition heavy, academic heavy videos and I'm excited to re-watch it a couple times.
It took me years…and it was my own mind. LOL However, I didn’t have the benefit of access to someone like me until very recently. I hope you’ll feel inspired to come over to my channel for more thinking aloud! 💛🙏🏽
Khadija is genuinely one of the most diplomatic youtubers i’ve ever come across on the Internet. And they’re so talented too. They talk about such serious and even uncomfortable topics yet also manage to make their videos amusing and lighthearted, while still getting their points across. major respect for Khadija.
"There's only one race, the Human Race." "what about NASCAR!?!" Joking aside very informative video and really gives a bunch of stuff to think on and explore further
This is an excellent analysis! Thank you for the time and effort you dedicated to this video. I’m an advocate for the abolition of gender, which has been a concept I’ve easily adopted and understood. This is the first time I’m hearing an argument for racelessness, and I think you presented it in a very comprehensive way that draws parallels with the theory of gender abolition. Of course, you do this while perfectly emphasizing a respect for each individual’s freedom to express their identity in whatever way they desire, which is important. Thanks again Auntie ❣️
Yes! The abolition of race coincides with the abolition of gender in meaningful ways. 🙏🏽💛 People have been asking me questions about such correlations more and more recently.
Okay, So I live in France right now. I go to University for Sociology. I have so many questions to run by y'all. For those of you who don't know: France as a country does not collect racial statistics or implement positive discrimination. There are no statistics about representation in Higher education, workplaces, or economic demographics. I don't usually disagree with my Profs about much: but this subject irked me. For one: they refused to address the fact that there is practically no representation in the course material. We talked about W E B Dubois: but as a footnote in the history of American Sociology. While every other major thinker we read at least one of their works: they wouldn't even talk about his theories: stating that he was mainly influential in Actionable Sociology, not Theoretical. I couldn't help but think that this was tainted with Tokenism, and Eurocentrism, but because the subject of race is taboo, they refuse to discuss these ideas. I suppose I'm just wondering how Eliminationism would work in a world that is still tainted by Colonialism, colorism, featurism, and the yet to be addressed economic opportunity issue? I thought that the discussion surrounding race at this point was encouraging individuals and groups to: Question our innate racist tendencies Question others Elevate the voices of people of color increase opportunities and visibility of people of color ..... generally, work towards undoing the effects of past injustice. Then, move towards a raceless society... Isn't there more work to do? Wouldn't eliminationism force a society to not talk about race, and racial issues? I mean, from what I can see in France: last year during the Black Lives Matter protests: the government and news publications legit blamed the influence of American Cultural Values as to why the protests sprang up. I feel like I live in a nation that's gaslighting a portion of its' population for questioning its inherently, and unintentionally racist systems. Thoughts?
They are really helping understand the scope of my own intellect. I used to feel like having learning disabilities = not being as smart or not being able to learn but they have really helped me figure out that the way I was being taught was wrong not that I was doing anything wrong. Thank you so much for making learning so accessable and digestible!💙💙
When did a big forehead become a bad thing? In my backwoods Canadian childhood, we had a stunning repertoire of insults, but this was never one of them. I’m sure it’s global capitalism, we needed more insecurities etc...
Valérie Levasseur it really is, idk where it comes from nor what they could sell us to “fix” it, but it always begins with 3-head, then 4-head and when that’s not enough it follows with the comparisons, so it’s somehow never small enough and somehow always a problem
Every one of your videos is another step in the right direction. Amazing and eye-opening! I do appreciate your inclusion of Fred Hampton and how those with power really don’t want positive change in a way that shares power. I do truly hope that voices like yours are amplified and spread around the world and shape the future by reaching people and helping us understand the real impact and positive change we all can make. Sometimes it can feel like we are all stuck in our limited tribes and echo chambers and I really hope your voice and the voices of those you highlight like Dr. Sheena Mason get out into the world more and more. Thank you for sharing your thought processes on this “controversial” and super important topic (controversial in quotes because the controversy is manufactured by those who fear losing the status quo). Be well 😘
I’m on board with racelessness, actually I felt this way for years. It started with the race being a social construct. I’m not so sure about critical race theory now, I was anti but I need to investigate a bit more. I really love this video. Gonna be thinking about. Thank you!
This was such a goddamn good video. As a racialized black woman I have always had an issue with how we talk about individual "race". I always thought the word "race" was othering and it placed people of different ethnicities in these categories that I now see are naturalist. The theory of racelessness is certainly something I am interested in because it explains exactly what I have felt for years.
The way I see it, getting rid of race is the ultimate goal bc it is inherently a harmful concept but it has to be done in steps. We can't just ignore race as racism still plays a huge role in society. Social constructionism is most productive in present day and is a necessary step to eradicating race. Similar to how socialism isn't the goal (anarcho communism, getting rid of the state, mutual aid is) but socialism is much better than the current system we have right now. It's all about taking steps toward progress.
Hi Khadija, I've been learning a lot from your videos, thanks for that. I'm a Brazilian WOC and I do need to read more about this theory of racelessness. At a first glance, all I can say is that it triggered all my red flags, precisely because of what happened in Brazil. Brazilians in general are so averse to the idea of race that racism itself ends up being swept under the rug. Brazil (especially now with the nasty far right in power) likes to portray itself as a 'racial democracy' where race doesn't matter coz it ain't even real and therefore racism does not exist. Why am I mentioning this? I don't know exactly, but my feeling is that this theory of racelessness could be easily distorted in order to cement the systems that are already in power. Yes, I get the racialized bit, and in my humble opinion the mere knowledge that race is something that others attribute to me does not make me feel much better. Because end of the day the problem still persists, and these theories might very well be highjacked and turned into something even nastier to people who are not white. It is indeed very complicated stuff and again, my opinion will probably change as I read more about the topic, but at a first glance this is how I feel, and I did feel like sharing here. Thank you, I love your channel!
As a white person, I’m worried about the eliminativist stance. Not because I wanna stay top dog on the race hierarchy, but I think implementing it as an individual is hard from a white pov. If I ever try to argue this to other white people, I have a feeling that I’m just gonna sound like someone advocating for color blindness or something. Am I wrong in thinking that or is there a way around that potential pitfall? Maybe I missed something 🤷♀️ Edit: just got to the colorblindness part of the video. Still worried about how this argument can come off, but it makes a little more sense now.
listen i questioned these things the same way you’re doing right now. if you want peace on earth youll be surprised to find it not to be an “idea” or a “thing” but a Person.
wrote this on IG and Possibly off topic, but something interesting I learned that made me come to realize that race was a purely a European invention was the actual origins of the “black” race itself. Black and darkness being associated with evil, or general bad thinks was not a mistake. Early Shakespeare era European playwrights would actually portray undesirable foreigners in blackface including Italians, Jews and French people. When Europeans began to colonize and enslave natives from Africa, they adapted the term “black” for these native Africans to erase their pre colonial national/ethnic identities and to dehumanize them. As a kid with immigrant west African parents, it does make me cringe when I see the pan Africanism and the over attachment to “blackness” (black pride, black Excellence, black is beautiful) that I see in African descent people in America, as many times they don’t understand that “blackness” and the racial system they see themselves through is completely a invention created by their European oppressors as well, as a way to erase their identities Ana culture. I remember I asked a former friend from Gambia, to do a sign in form for a immigration study/showcase project I did in my undergrad program, and she force wrote in Wolof for the “race” category for the questionnaire form. It really brought how much these race identities were forced on African descent people.
I had to relisten to Part 4 of this video because it's making me ask myself why it is easier for me, who has been racialized as a white man, to believe this concept of racelessness compared to Critical Race Theory? And is that because of my race? I think a large part of why 'white' is seen as the default is because 'white' is, in a lot of ways, not an identity like other races. I think 'whiteness' is uniquely different from other races because 'whiteness' is defined by what it isn't rather than what it is. It is in many ways the absence of race, or... Racelessness, and I think that's why people who take pride in their whiteness can be so easily identified as racists who will find it to be a double standard when racialized black people take pride in their blackness (Because it's not the same thing). (And of course, the problem with whiteness being considered the default is that it's inherently exclusive, just to cover bases. Not supporting the notion, just explaining why that thought might exist). So to me, who has been racialized as a white man, race is something that I don't identify with. There's almost nothing there in whiteness *to* identify with, other than maybe saying you've not been otherized, and I don't see how a healthy identity would come from incorporating that into me as a person. CRT is not asking me to like, be shameful of America's history as a white man (my father was born and raised in Turkey, I have no personal relation to these people outside of what I had to read in history books growing up), but it *does* ask me to *consider race as a part of my identity* when I consider how that has affected me in the social and legal systems that uphold race. The theory of racelessness says we can analyze the impact racism has had by being encoded into our social and legal systems, and how that affects the modern day, and we can deconstruct those and build a better future, but what we *don't* need is for you to identify with a race. And I like that a bit more, personally. I know Khadija said she took a lot of time digesting and mulling over this information, but I've only had this for a few hours. Hopefully a month from now I'll have a much better idea of what I think about this stuff, and I'll be a better person for it. Thanks for the video, Khadija.
this is really interesting. as a mixed person i’ve always wondered what I really was ? plus with social media i’ve seen people defining blackness in various ways and that didn’t help. but with that video i understand ! so thank you for making this theory less hard to understand
Really think about the concept of "back culture." The vast majority of black people in the world are not in the U.S. What does an African American have in common culturally with, say, a random guy from Rwanda, who does not speak English, has never stepped foot in the U.S, has never heard a note of rap or hip hop in their life, wears completely different clothing, speaks a completely different language, has a different religion, eats completely different food and even uses different facial and physical expressions. Little to nothing? African Americans are indeed more similar to white Americans than to that hypothetical Rwandan man (I know there are many Rwandan people with access to international culture which is strongly influenced by the U.S, but I digress). What you mean when you say Black culture is indeed African American culture, and what you mean when you say "white people don't have culture" is "there is no 'European American' ethnic group as there is an 'African American' ethnic group in the U.S. because of the specific characteristics of historical, ethnic, racial, migratory and assimilation-based cultural practices of the U.S."
This video was really eye-opening. And like any other good theory, I feel like so many of its core components can be placed onto other intersecting identities to make "genderlessness", "sexuallessness", "nationlessness", etc. as a tool in said forms of abolitionism.
This is analogous to the whole, "The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference." The opposite of racism isn't race-consciousness, it's racelessness."
I always wrestled with the idea of being "aracial" the same way one could be agender. I thought it would be offensive because I'm relatively pale skinned, I had some privilege and it wouldn't be fair not to identify with the racial group I was assigned. Then I thought no one tells amab agender folks that they have to identify as Male because assigned male privilege invalidated any gender identity. I think that Race can always be taught as a Historical context, but that also means we should do our bests to understand how races and diversity were viewed at the respective time, and not try to implement our modern context of race on to these things.
I love that you brought up “aracial,” as it’s a term that came across my desk within the last week or so. I’m still learning more about the history of the term, the context…but it’s interesting when considered alongside my philosophies of race (skepticism eliminativism). Instead of aracial…at least for now…I tend to prefer human. But I’m very particular about language, its genealogy, and what I apply to myself. 💛
If you can identify as "aracial" would that imply that terms like "transracial" and "cisracial" would exist? I don't think its 100% parallel with gender identity but i do think everyone should have a choice in not wanting to identify with race
Fascinating video. Definitely given me more food for thought. In terms of the philosophies, I find myself really leaning towards being a social constructivist with some of that skeptic mindset and wanting to eliminate race, but I also think that reconstructionism should come first as a middle ground. I am very interested in your future video (if you make one of course, can't recall if you said you were doing it 100%) about "oreos" because as a racialized black person who has grown up experiencing, hearing, and being told I was an oreo for being interested in anything that wasn't "black culture", I would love to hear your thoughts and perspective on it and revisit the words I've been told with my more open mindset compared to elementary and middle school me and even college/early adulthood me. I also saw Shanspere's video on the topic a while back and it was fascinating as well. Great video Khadija!
Excellent. Reconstructionism is the middle ground and has been for centuries. There’s no time like to present to look toward eliminativism. We’ve spent more than enough time reconstructing. 💛🙏🏽
This reminded me of the current status of queer topics, in which you are saying yes we exist but the future should be getting rid of this social labels and understand that we are all humans with our own likes and dislikes, even the subcategories of nature, social and non existence are part of the debate over there too, great video as always, thanks for your efforts on opening this topics for all of us
You've given me a lot to think about. I'm realizing that it takes me longer to (quietly and without insulting others) accept new ideas/terminology (like the idea of gender fluid or non-binary people). So, having this theory and philosophy has blown my mind. I like the idea, but I can't wrap my head around it. This might take me sometime. I think I'm a social constructionist, BTW.
I won’t hold you- every time you pop up I want to listen to the knowledge you’re dropping but that song “so this is love” pops into my head every time lol your so damn gorgeous
This video and videos like this are like deprogramming and learning all in one. It can be hard to confront your own subconsious biases and social conditioning but I feel its precisely the way to go when it comes to both learning and growing as a person.
I'm so glad. It might work for some people and definitely not for others. When I first heard about it I was like, "uh-uh I'm Black" lol it's been nice dissecting this and finding a new vantage point to discuss my personal relationship with race
My god. This made so much sense. Thank you for making this video and for always promoting open-mindedness and the expansion of one’s mind through conversation and critical thinking- luuuuuuvvv ya sooo damn much ♥️♥️
When the final thoughts section is 20 minutes you know its a good one. Also I can't believe I just watched you interview a professor online FOR FREE. As always I'll be letting this video marinade. You are a genius!
This was an incredible video essay and I'm definitely gonna have to re-watch it for my brain to stomp those pathways into place now that they're open. I feel like this breaks open a lot of really important topics in need of development. The one I'm most hooked on is that it's an excellent response/means of expanding the conversation with people who do the "colour blindness" approach that was talked about. Those people who say "Can't we all just be the HUMAN race?" as a means of avoiding the work while still appearing progressive. The Theory of Racelessness encapsulates the deconstruction and emotional labour that still needs to be done if we sincerely believe that the ideal future is one of simply being "the human race". Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, and for directing us to Dr. Sheena Mason. There's so much to learn here, I'm excited.
This was SO enlightening! Never had the words to explain the way I feel about race and how I feel we should treat it…and now I do! Thank you for your awesome content! Always enjoy your videos!
As a white English girl (who does kiss her dog on the mouth, I know, she's my baby) thank you so much for your content. Not only do you make me and others think in a different way but I love your take on these topics. Thanks for cracking open minds on such important and difficult topics, plus you bring such an elegance and whit to it, thank you Khadija
I've been wanting to talk about racelessness on my channel for a while now, and I just wanted to say thank you for doing such an incredible job putting this video together. Racelessness is an inherently controversial and fraught topic to cover, but it's wickedly important to bring up in the wider discussion. So, now there's one less video on my "ideas" Google Doc!
Before watching this video, I never really thought about racelessness bc I just saw it as another description or characteristic like nationality and ethnicity. No different than describing types of flowers. I felt the bigger issue was attaching a hierarchy or superiority complex to that description or to how someone is born. Meaning just saying one is inherently better than the other or the belief that someone could be born superior. Then creating a society and systems around it. What do you have left when you take that hierarchy or hierarchical system away? Sometimes I wonder if race as we know it dissapeared or never existed, would something else take its place and have the same effects bc of some people's desire to feel like they were born superior. I think it would be interesting to dive into why some people feel that way and how societies or systems are built from that.
Really interesting. Dr. Mason's model seems like it can truly help people rethink the way they conceptualise race and racism, as well as a way to combat racism. Great video.
I think I’m also a social constructionist/skeptic. I’ve always understood that race was constructed on ignoring culture and ethnic differences and simply using phenotypic all similarities to group and categorize people. In the U.S. our society is so racialized because it comes from the top down and from coast to coast racialized black Americans experience the same racial realities in terms of mistreatment and abuse. However, I really agree that there are many people who are not in the business of taking race out of how we see each other and are more interested in creating hierarchy’s within the racialized group dynamic. We’ve seen it in how patriarchy has become such as terrible scourge in the black community by racialized black people who simply want to feel ahead of others. As a racialized black person in the US though I agree that there is still a black culture as a phenomenon that in a melting pot of the diaspora that many closely identify with. Love the video and I will be bringing these thoughts and this convo to life with those around me!!!
Hey Khadiha! I’m a huge fan. Could you possibly do a video on the ethnic distinctions that exist between black people in the United States? You briefly touched on this topic at 32:23 when you speak about your identity as being African but growing up in a Black American environment. From what I’ve observed as an Afro-Caribbean American, Black Americans have a diverse array of ethnic backgrounds whether they be African American (the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the US) Afro-West Indian and Afro-Latinx (the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Caribbean and Latin America) or African (those who immigrated directly to the United States from Africa). I’ve seen a lot of discourse and contention about what these ethnicities mean and whether there should be unity among us as people of African descent. I’d love to hear your take and it would be cool to discuss this further!
Somehow I just deiscovered your channel yesterday and since then I have been BINGING them. I love the way you strutucture your videos, moreso the nuance you bring to each topic. I'm been thinking about race a lot in the last few years particularly given the murder of George Floyd took place in my hometown in a neighborhood I grew up visiting every week because it was the closest place my family could buy Mexican food/groceries. (My parents are immigrants from Northen Mexico, while I was born and raised in rural Minnesota, US) As a Mexican-American with medium tan skin, I NEVER knew what to state as my race on any demographic survey. Ethnicity wise I identify as Latina/e, but that's obviously not a race. I've already been working towards the idea that I have no race (although in colonial Mexico, I guess my race would be mestizo since I have primarily Spanish and Indigenous descendency and an enslaved African ancestor) in the US, which does lean towards the skeptism mindset. I experience the effects of racism in my daily life because I am not racialized white or whit passing, but yet I have no race. I think looking at the concept of race through the lens of "Other Race" people, like me, particularly when talking about race in the United States, understanding race as a social construct starts to fall apart more easily and we can embrace the idea of racelessness hopefully more easily. Like it was started in the video, I don''t want my perceived race via my skin tone to be erased per say but to be a visible cue to the experiences of racism that I have gone through and that my suffering is that of a human being. To see me is to see my beautiful brown skin, my queerness, my gender, my faith, and my disabilities and thus my humanity. As one of my theology professors has stated "racism is the original sin of the Americas" and race is the most obvious symptom. Okay gonna go watch more of your content, now.
This video was interesting to watch and definitely gave me a lot to think about. I think when you broke things down and summarized things towards the end helped a lot with digesting the concepts you were explaining.
Just to expand on that comment a little bit after taking a day to think about it. When I first heard the theory of racelessness, viscerally it did feel like colorblindness and I was kind of taken aback. To me, race was clearly and immutably real. I would not want the experiences of people erased by ignoring the interconnectedness of race in their stories (and my story). One of the important realities for me to consider that I knew about intellectually but I had not fully thought out to my modern understanding of race (and what we should do about it) is how it was a complete garbage fabrication for the purpose of subjugating our fellow humans. With that in mind, eradicating that very concept of race seems like the only possible way forward. That quote about using the master's tools to tear down the master's house is incredibly poignant when thinking about the Theory of Racelessness.
Thank you for this! I've struggled for so many years to explain to people how I view race and the only word I had was colorblind but it never sat right and I would say things like "it's not that I don't see people's skin color or acknowledge our differences, I'm just saying that I see a person first and they just happen to have that shade of skin tone". I was never trying to ignore or pretend like racism didn't exist but colorblind never worked. The theory of racelessness definitely falls in line with my genuine beliefs about race. So thank you again for sharing this! It has helped me so much.
This was a DELICIOUS video. The academia. The consultation with an EXPERT. The sheer length, volume, and quality. Thank you Auntie Khadija for our meal🥺🤲💛 Please, I would love to see more videos like this, I look forward to watching these types of videos like a little treat.
I feel like i fall in between Social Constructivism and Skepticism but I'm more of a reconstructionism than an eliminationist because racism is not going away anytime soon so getting rid of it is gonna take a hot minute
Commenting again because I wanted to add what "culture" is for me as a Black American that isn't a daughter, granddaughter, nor great-granddaughter of immigrants. I'm that slave descendant, rando DNA in the bloodline, can't trace my last name pass a certain point, raised completely by other Black Americans, Black American (I say all that to acknowledge that "Black" is not a monolith and our varied backgrounds give us different perspectives and behaviors that are important. We have commonalities but we are still very unique. I just want to clarify my particular background in this "Black" diaspora we've been lumped into by others). I see my culture mainly in the common behaviors a great deal of us were taught as a result of having to be as upstanding as possible to reduce (hopefully) the inevitable discrimination we will face. I'm not a respectability politics player but many habits I have are a result of it; the code switching - verbally and visually, regular bathing (what is up with this non-bathing certain folks keep declaring?), not eating with my mouth open, elbows off the table (the amount of Whytes I've witnessed with bad table manners is astounding), an acquaintance with Christianity regardless of not practicing it myself, not "testing" my parent's patience (it's so weird when I see kids doing this as a prank to prove some point). Because a lot of Black Americans (not all, I repeat, not all) were raised with several of the same behaviors, it is often easy to become friends quickly. A few exchanges will let us know if that person was raised similarly to us and that is very comforting.
Your Google sponsor will save my life. I never again want to work a low paying job being abused in food and customer service to pay for my student loans on the side while working a full time job! Thank you for providing this information and opportunity!!
I think my issue with the theory of racelessness is that it gives all of the historical agency to white people and blames all people (including people of color and black people) identifying with the race they were racialized as for perpetuating racism. I think it's important to look at the formation of Blackness not only as a reaction to the unimaginable violence Africans experienced during colonization, but as a cultural identity Black people who experienced the beginning of colonialism could create when forced into diaspora or when living in shattered nations. I don't really think it's at all true or even makes sense to say that when you look at any given racial category that people might be socialized into, and to say well actually if collapse this category it's only made up of other things and only supported by racism. Is it really appropriate to collapse Blackness into just a list of different kinds of oppression enacted on the same group of people with no initial matter being acted on which would react and change over time? I also think part of what troubles me is that it seems to place the mechanism of racism as the categorization of people as opposed to actual violence and trauma? Racial categories emerged over time as colonization carried on it wasn't immediate. I think it makes sense to look at the ways that all social categories were changed by colonization in the same period of time. Not because they're the same but because their differences can highlight some things. Colonization and the European reaction against African systems of gender and sexuality played a huge role in the formation of a binary and compulsorily heterosexual understanding of gender which has created the gender system we live in today. But despite those histories of violence I don't think that you could argue that people having an individual experience of having a gender is only a product of that violent creation and enforcement of gender identities in the past. Certainly that's part of it and it enormously influences how people perceive and express their own gender but it would be incredibly invalidating and scientifically inaccurate (and really trans exclusionary) to say that gender doesnt exist. And even more so to say that people having gender identities is a mechanism of sexism and cissexism. Either way this this video is interesting and it's really exciting to hear you talk about racialization and socialization! I'm looking forward to more theoretical deep dives.
Honestly could sit and listen to you educate the people for HOURS. You have a amazing personality and you put everything in a way that everyone can understand. Also love the tattoos and piercings
As an air sign, I'll do my thing and change my mind when presented with new information. I'd like to add that I've never felt racialized until I heard about it from Latinamerican people living in the US. I've seen some sketches from a girl who "looks white" (blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair) but was born in Venezuela and therefore is considered a person or color. It made me very confused and curious about race theory! Now I'm very interested in racelessness theory and I'll learn more about the subject, thank you for bringing it to our attention!! (Edit: typos)
girl, you really be out here working. the way this calendar has said august in the back for all of these videos and it's practically the second week in october?? it does not go unnoticed lol thank you!
As a French person, I found this video so fascinating because I know that America's relationship to race is very different from France's and I thought the points of view presented in this video are fairly close to what I imagine a French perspective would be on the subject (I'm probably generalizing there, though). Americans seem to be a lot more race-obsessed than we are (and I understand this comes from the 2 countries having a very different history). In fact, I know that for some French people learning English, it is quite baffling the way you can casually use the word "race" in English because in French, we do have the word "race" (spelled the same, pronounced differently, obviously) but it only refers to a naturalist definition of the word. Basically, if you use the word "race" in French, it kinda immediately sounds nazi... I feel quite close to Dr Mason's theory but I would still say that the concept of race has a certain validity, not as an identity bur rather as a category of oppression. Although it is true that "race is not a monolith" in the sense that it grossly groups together people who really represent a variety of social, economic, cultural backgrounds, but that's kinda the point behind the concept of race: to create a monolith to justify oppression, and thus dehumanize the oppressed. I understand "race" as a category created by racism that, if you fall into a non-white race, will be the predominant way in which you will be perceived (in a racist system/society/structure, that is), annihilating the relevance of your social status, actual cultural background, personal achievements, etc. It wouldn't matter if you're African-American, Nigerian or Jamaican, you would still be labeled Black, you would be forced into a racial identity created by white supremacy in which skin colour or just generally what you "pass" as take precedence over anything else. If we want to fight racism, we have to maintain "race" as a category of oppression, that is to say we should acknowledge that however artificial race is, it is still used as a tool of oppression. For ex, if you're Black, probably quite a few people, whether they're doing it consciously or not, would only see you as Black, would only see you through the lens of race. We can only hope that as we keep fighting racism and we move towards greater equality, the use for the word/concept of race will self-dissolve as in a perfect utopian world, it would have ceased to be relevant.
@@sseraphim2818 No not at all, I did not mean to say that racism does not exist in France, because it sure does and the far-right is in worryingly good shape. What I meant to say is that the 2 countries have a different understanding of the concept of race. Our cultural identities are probably not as much shaped around "race" as it is in the US. For example, the French law technically does not allow to collect statistics based on ethnicity/race
Fantastic video! Thank you so much for putting all these important concepts together in such a clear way. And thank you, Dr. Mason, I look forward to your book coming out!
This is so much YES!! I tries telling people this for years...and just get blank stares.....so glad more people are figuring this out and sharing the FACTS
I’m scared about the “bundle” that the Naturalism is… I’ve actually thought a lot about what race is and to me it is genetic. But stops there. There absolutely no “value” or hierarchy in any of them. To me race is the way we call people that share the same “phenotypes”, probably because of an old connection with a people that evolved in a certain part of the globe (Europe, subsaharian Africa, East Asia, etc)… What’s the importance of that? NONE. It’s just something that determines how you look. Stops there. Just that. Literally, just looks. Like… black people usually have coily hair, eastern asians usually have a certain eye shape, white people usually have a certain nose shape, etc. just that. The bigger issue is how much difference is “allowed” inside one “race”. There was a time when people believed that there were different races in what now we consider is “white” (slavs, latins, arians, jews, etc). After some time people decided to call everybody who are from European/Middle Eastern descent the same race (Caucasian). Then people started to say people from Middle East are “enough” different to be considered a different race (“Arabic”) and people strictly from European descent are “white”. So… where these differentiations begin or end is complicated… And the differentiation gets even less noticeable when you consider how much we’re “mixing”. (And honestly using the therm “mixed” should be more normalized. People who look ambiguous don’t need to be thrown into different boxes all the time. You’re not Y or X, or A or B, you’re mixed! And that’s great!) But yeah, socially speaking, I see the importance of it, as the Constructionist part. It’s stupid to call them by colors though… there are eastern Asians paler then Europeans, and Indians darker than some people from subsaharian African descent. Calling people back, white and yellow when everybody comes is various shades os beige and brown is so weird.
Yeah I think that Khadija shouldn’t have just used white supremacists as examples of Naturalists and Conservationists. I don’t think I’m a Naturalist, but I agree with you that it’s possible to be one without being a white supremacist or any kind of supremacist. And many POC are Naturalist without being white supremacists (sometimes they’re Black supremacists instead, for example, but many times not). I think I actually agree with you description that “race is the way we call people that share the same phenotypes” but I think I’m not a Naturalist because there is no reason to group certain phenotypes together in the way we have under the current racial categories, which means that race is socially constructed. Like, theoretically race could be determined solely based on skin tone, which would create very different racial categories than we have today. So to me, race is a social construction based in part on genetics, but those genetics were chosen/categorized for purely social reasons, not natural ones.
Exactly, while people have different physical characteristics, the way that these are categorized, grouped, and named are completely arbitrary. Naturalists aren't just people who have noticed that black people have darker skin, they are people who then go on to infer other things about all people who happen to share that characteristic, and those assumptions usually involve denying that systems of oppression exist and are the reason why certain groups seem to have an advantage over others.
As an mixed race Asian-American have very complicated feeling on race. When people ask me "what" I am I generally answer half Ashkenazi Jewish and half Indian. I normally do not answer with race only ethnicity. Culturally I feel more Indian than I do Asian. The traditions, food and languege I know are all specific to India and not Asia as a whole. However last year in college I took a history class about Asian-American people. One thing we learned about was how the racial category Asian-American was created by Asian-American Activists as a way to collectively organize those communities and to have more political power. I believe that even if I don't Asian-American we are stronger together than we are apart. Another thing that the class talked about related to the pan Asian label was that a lot of groups who don't fit into the sucessful Asian American stereotypes don't get as much support because they should. Cambodians and Laotians who come to the US as refugees and need help settling don't get the same organizing support as east Asians did with the "Stop Asian Hate" campaign. At my college campus there is an Asian-American/Asian Community Center. I know that there are not enough students of most Asian ethnicities at my school to support their own center so I think that being one group has definately helped there. I know that the hispanic/latino category on the census was also created with help from activists. It would be interesting to learn more about that.
I am a 56 year old Black woman born in the US, and I never heard of "jumpin' de broom" until I was in my 30s.... Hahaha White people are being racialised and they are angry about it and why they don't like critical race theory... priceless. Sorry for the spelling, the letter at the end of the alphabet no longer works on my keyboard. Widen the parameters by coming to change making using constructs from the perspective of the oppressed. NO? I really enjoy your videos, really really.
I hope this doesn't come off as rude because it's not meant to be...however I would have liked to hear more of Khadija's unbiased perspective. It's seems like a lot of her viewpoints were influenced by Dr. Mason but not in an organic way...if that makes sense.
It's because it's something I'm still figuring out! I wanted to explain it first as "unbiased" as possible so that people got the information before perhaps being influenced by my perspective. It's why I always have a final thoughts section so I can tell y'all how I feel about the thing I'm talking about! And it didn't sound rude, but text isn't always the best format to understand tone so I appreciate your disclaimer!
i was taught a lot of naturalist beliefs by my family that even now im trying to unlearn. i want to believe and understand racelessness, and become more of a sceptic, but as i was learning about the types of race beliefs i didnt realize how much i had been keeping around, even after years and years of staying away from the people who taught me those things
This was dense, but thank you and Dr. Mason for making it accessible for the average person. I will be rewatching this video because I know I'll get more nuggets of wisdom out of it on a second time.
I’m sorry but I’m 3 minutes in and I must say the “wait a minute hol onnnnn” GOT ME IN ACTUAL TEARS 😂 the comedic timing was *chefs kiss* okay back to the video now 😊
Girl..... do NOT disparage your forehead. It houses that AWESOME brain of yours, so NEVER AGAIN should you say anything negative about it. I LOVE your intellect and it is your best asset... your beautiful face is just the ICING my friend!! Love, peace and hair grease!
What do you think your philosphy of race is and what do y'all think about the Theory of Racelessness? What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? What do you think needs more work to make such a thing possible?
CC's will be up for this and my last video by the end of the week! Raul has been VERY busy with exams and just life!
Another question: Can a white American ask that question without sounding entitled? (I'm not American.)
I think I am personally a constructionist and an eliminativist. I would say that I am a skeptic, but there seems to be a bit of a contradiction in it? Like there is the part that denies that race exists (I agree), but I can't really get rid of the idea that it is like an actual thing that has real effects, regardless of the importance of skin color... I hope that makes sense. However, I do agree that the ultimate goal of "solving" racism and that kind of stuff is to start to dismantle systems that promote it, or as you and Dr. Mason put it, leveling out the statistical distributions. I also really liked what you said towards the end where you were kinda saying that there are these perceived differences, but in the end it's superficial, and ideally we should be looking past them. That has been my view for a long time on most social issues, mainly that the differences that some people focus on do not actually matter in the grand scheme of things, and ultimately should be ignored when you are discussing someone or whatever. But at the same time, you kind of have to reckon with the fact that these perceived issues are real things that have tangible effects on our world and we should address these real problems. Bit of a dilemma.
I think I'm between constructivist and skeptical after watching this video. like race isn't real but racism has very tangible effects. im still working through my thoughts but this was very interesting. im really not sure how racelessness could be achieved realistically due to white supremacy, though.
I really tried to get a different perspective, but the skeptic and eliminativist is giving BIG "I don't see race" energy which is extremely harmful and invalidating towards those most affected by it. I get that's not the intention, but it still overlaps with many of those points
I think that it's a dangerous president to set for as long as corporations are considered people. Because even legally they are the supreme people by virtue of their limited laws for regulation paired with the lack of accountability. You can't put a whole corporation into a penitentiary for homicide, in fact it's actually legal for a corporation to commit homicide because of the lack of laws. Imagine when humans get stripped completely of our residual rights because everyone is overlooking the 14th amendment and proceeding laws stripping human rights ....... It could absolutely get worse if you overlook the specifics in the laws and what needs to be amended first. It's like how the n azi s got away with using "socialism" and bait n switching to totalitarianism. There's nuance that is needed and a s ses (humans) to cover you know?
Honestly hadn't thought about race as much while I was in the Caribbean cause I was in a predominantly Black country however when I got came to the states - I became HYPER self-aware of the fact that I'm a Big Black man and some ppl might only see me as that.
My dad was from Jamaica. He went to Los Angeles in 1952 for a holiday for 2 weeks. He told me that he didn't know he was "black" till he was in LA.. He said people kept telling him and his friends like it was a negative. It's not. He stayed 3 days he and his friends hated LA. (Due to the fact that they where afraid. They had never felt like that before. And wanted to go home) I recently saw an interview with Supermodel Iman she said the same thing.. That she didn't know she was black till she came to the USA.
@@VeeLondon1449 Let’s just take a likkle moment to appreciate di GRAVITY of the fact that a Black person can grasp racism in as little as 2 WEEKS yet we still av yamheads claiming that it don’t exist 😮💨
mhmmm
@hasslfoot 🥲bless yuh, m’yute. You single-handedly 180’d this comment thread into wholesome territory
this is interesting, i grew up in puerto rico n its very common to see what in the us ppl call mixed people and black people (i never thought of ppl in these distinctions, only as puerto rican) so even though im white passing i also experienced this hyper awareness of race n realizing that ppl in the states see n interact w race wayy differently
I like the idea of saying ‘racialized’ in front of whatever race you’re talking about. it does help emphasize that race is a social construct
Took me a while to realized this, but this just made it super clear, thanks 🙏
It’s like saying unhoused vs homeless or enslaved vs former slave, it highlights the societal and/or structural systems that allow things to continue in the way they have or the inherent lack of choice involved in the status
I also like it’s inherent fluidity. “Racialization” adjusts depending on era, location, appearance, and context. It shifts and its boundaries are fuzzy and somewhat subjective. It feels more like the verb it is rather than a concretely fundamental “inherent” characteristic.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot, lol, came back to share,
I realized we should be saying ethnicity or something else if we are actually referring to it in conversation, it’s more accurate, much easier too than being like “I’m black but(insert this part of the diáspora and assoc history”)
I even think Khadijah did it in the video
Yes! I first saw it in Akala's book "Natives"! Amazing book, too.
Off topic, you got a GOOGLE sponsor?!
Listen, I’m as stunned and “🥰🥴💕” as anyone lol
m.ruclips.net/video/A5zJCv3XNNw/видео.html
You should read the Isis papers by doctor frances cress welsing because we FBA/DOAS aren't intrested in surrendering to white supremacy like you guys are...no wonder your home countries are in shambles because you refuse to build it up you want whitey to do all the work and what's even more disturbing is how you people just ran away instead of stay and make your countries better
@@gripwilsonjr882 ?
@@gripwilsonjr882 what
Thank you so much for inviting me to share my theory of racelessness. I had fun and learned along the way. If anyone takes anything generative away from this video, I’ll be glad.
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💕 THANK YOUUUUUU. It was honestly so fun working with you to bring this video to life!
Thanks to you both so much for collaborating I do think people to this day fear retaliation when it comes to building the true rainbow coalition. You both are an inspiration to be authentic and have the courage to challenge things that are harmful but still around due to their usefulness in keeping things unchanged. People fear change and they also fear being the one to inspire change. Your courage is on full display and I love it! ❤️
Thank you, Dr. Mason!
Interesting perspective. Thank you.
Your perspective needs to become mainstream! How can we get you into the big media?
I see the appeal of the eliminationist point of view. In a way, removing racism may also remove the concept of race. At the same time I am having a hard time agreeing with the skeptic point of view: so many people make their own race a key part of their own identity, so many people believe in race, and that's what kinda makes it real as a social construct, right? At the same time, I see how race can just be racism in disguise, and how one would not exist without the other: but still I see them both real as a social constructs (thightly associated, not fully distinct from each other).
Maybe a good strategy would be to have eliminationism as a long term goal, without simply dismissing it as utopian, while basing smaller "day to day" battles on reconstructionist policies?
OMG I love this video my brain is expanding!
I loved that comment! It was like I was witnessing you coming to your own conclusion about it all in real time!
I think there are other things that could be a key part of people's identity long term: like ethnicity.
I think even for latinos & asians in America there's a bit more of ethnicity going on: people talk about being Columbian-American or Japanese-American, and while I see that in the black American community I also see people grieving their ethnicities in that way, I've seen black Americans online talk about how they don't know where they're from. Maybe an alternative for racial pride in the long term could be pride about ethnicity. I think community is so important in any society and I think race does provide a sense of that for some people.
Just my two cents. My brains in the same place that yours is, thinking about what long term things to strive for and how can we start taking those steps! Please reply back if you disagree with me or have anything to add.
@@hannaheve868 I see what you mean. In a way the perceived race is what is left even after ethnic and cultural differences are lost.
A fifth, sixth generation Asian American may have lost all ties to their ancestors culture (no language, no rituals or traditions, no cuisine) but still be perceived (and perceive themselves) as a different race. Is this racism? Probably, to some extent
You and I had the same journey and destination. Thinking I need to give the whole CRT series a rewatch to fully digest it though. Between that and FD Signifier’s video on White Existential Dread, this has been a real growth year for me.
My mentor Jacoby Carter at Howard University is a social constructionist eliminativist! One needn't be a skeptic to be an eliminativist. I do think skepticism is more effective toward the goal of "eliminating" racism, though, since most constructionists still fall into the trap of naturalism, which is deeply rooted with racism. Still, one can be a constructionist and call for the whole thing to be destroyed...without also partaking in unintentionally upholding the hierarchy. I think I mention some strategies that can help, like including the word "racialized" before a "race" concept. At least, if one is a constructionist, one can point to the construction...consistently and significantly. :) I was a constructionist...up until I realized I was a skeptic. LOLOL That was a very recent happening.
Khadija may not realize it, but they are forming and teaching a whole generation of adolescents, and they are doing it correctly. Amazing! 👏👏👏
*Edit* Thanks to everyone for letting me know about their correct pronouns! I also completely agree with the fact that Khadija is teaching us all, young and adult, we're never too grown to learn more and grow as people!
And us adults 🙋♀️🎒
*has previously discussed not entirely identifying as a woman
Agreed, their videos are very eye opening, I appreciate how they can make informative dialogue engaging, this especially enables access for neurodiverse people :)
And adults too, my friend. I learn a lot on here.
@@hereforthevideoessays6399 that's what I was going to say. You (hopefully) don't stop growing as an adult.
100%, i feel so lucky to have Khadijah’s videos for me to learn from as so much other information is just wrong
OMG YOU HAVE GIVEN THIS A NAME! I called it ‘conscious colourblindness”, acknowledging the outcomes the racism and race, but creating a world where race doesn’t matter anymore
💛💛💛 Amen. I’m glad my “theory of racelessness” speaks to and with you!
I feel like reconstruction is almost like a stepping stone towards the goal that is elimination.
And like. I don't enough ti have an opinion. Especially on race related things.
However. People making it an "either or." Revolution OR incrimental change. Inside AND outside the system.
I want to win.
"If you believe you can change the system from the inside, you're not doing enough."
"You want to burn everything down? You're a filthy radical."
I want to fucking WIN.
Unarmed Black folks not being murdered by police? A win.
Indigenious folks getting water? That's a win.
Trans people, poor people, and others being seen as human? A win
Reducing C02 emissions? A win.
People being protected from this virus, vaccination world wide? Preping our systems to better handle the next one? And climate disaster? a WIN.
I want the goals to get done. In the system, outside of the system. Both. Neither. I just want to get it done. I just want to win. Period.
Indeed. It is! I encourage folks to consider how reconstruction alone isn’t enough…but eliminativism requires the process of reconstruction to achieve its end.
This cracked my brain open, in such a good way. You're so excellent, I'm in awe x
This actually reminds me of this theory I heard about disability : disabled people aren't really disabled, but rather society makes them so because of the barriers it puts towards them. If society was more accessible, would they still be perceived as disabled ?
This definitely opened up mind tbh i think that they would still be SEEN physically disabled but in terms of disabled people having more availability then probably not.
What you are referring too is the social model of disability. It’s the pretty well accepted theory in academia and within disability advocacy. It’s the reason why learning disorders, such as ADHD or dyslexia, are considered disabilities within an educational environment now, but not necessarily in a workplace environment.
The social model of disability only takes us so far. Disability justice and the movement associated with the ideology expands to chronically ill, mentally ill, mentally disabled, and even terminally ill people, who still experience struggles outside of the social model.
Improving ramps is not going to make a bedbound person able to leave their bed. Making walkable cities is not going to stop someone from having a fainting attack because of POTS. There are just some obstacles that cannot be overcome--dyspraxia makes your balance wobbly, dyscalculia affets your ability to process language as well as numbers and spatial awareness.
This doesn't mean the social model of disability has its uses and benefits, it just doesn't take things as far as the disability justice movement does. The social model of disability doesn't address sanism, for example.
@@gamingwhilebroken2355 Adult ADHD is absolutely a disability; it has an extreme impact on social aspects, but it's still debilitating even without that.
Like... It can affect basic life tasks, like eating and grooming and finances and such.
It's the single most debilitating outpatient psychiatric disorder, in fact. (Although it's also the one that responds the best to medication)
@@isthiscereallifeI'm not so sure though. A disabled person is turned into a separate class through ableism. If a bed bound person was accommodated without drawn out process and integrated socially still, that would be drastically different. The reason this is the defining attribute of a person, is thier relationship to production, is the capitalist mode of production and individualist brainwashing. Most of us lose mobility, and start with none, then we talk about ageism
Ma'am you're giving us entire academic courses in race. But worded in a way that is really easy to understand. I am eternally grateful. Genuinely. You are an incredible teacher.
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Loved this video, I think it'll stay in the back of my mind for a while.
It's quite common to hear online Europeans say "you're making it about race"/"you Americans are so obsessed with race". I am European myself so I can kind of understand where that sentiment comes from, but I've come to recognize that this sentence is often a way to dismiss any argument against inequality. So I've learned to agree that colourblindness is a bad mindset, yet part of me always felt there was more to it, and I think this video gave me the answer.
After the second war, a lot of Europeans were terrified of the idea of race because of its potential consequences. In fact, I don't know how to put it but the word "race" in french sounds more racist than the word "race" in English, simply because in France the subject is not talked about in these terms. The mantra was basically "there is only one race, the human race, repeat it until you perish". I learned about segregation, apartheid, slavery etc in school, but modern-day discrimination wasn't brought up and this rigid attitude towards the concept of race doesn't really allow for the vocabulary to talk about race.
Critical race theory solves that problem, as it lays the framework behind racism. But at the same time, learning about race in that way gives more meaning and heaviness to it. I distinctly remember hearing and seeing as a child singers like Rihanna, Beyonce and Whitney Houston, and my mind never registered any of them as black. I didn't know much about these women (and I couldn't understand english), but if you'd asked me then to list the differences between Rihanna and a white pop star, I would've probably said their style of music or something. Then I was out of the loop for mainstream music so it took a few years for me to hear someone use the word "black" when talking about Rihanna, and it actualized my perception of her. It wasn't a revelation or anything: even as a child I could tell she had darker skin and certain features, but my mind never joined the dots and put her in that category.
Understanding english, getting accustomed to american culture and learning about race gave me a better understanding of racism, but I can still feel the appeal of that worldview where race doesn't really matter and is seen more as an old concept. Racelessness as you explain it seems to be ideal, as it throws away race from its pedestal without discarding racism.
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Same here (Scandinavia). I remember just last year some politician proudly announcing that racism doesn’t exist in this country because “we have laws against that”. Just yesterday a survey showed that dark skinned people are much more likely to be unlawfully stopped by police, but the police themselves made a statement rejecting the color of skin as the reason. Local BLM protests were widely regarded as silly and completely unnecessary. Even colonization of the West Indies and result slavery, when people actually started talking about it as problematic a couple of years ago, was regarded as “just a part of history and nothing to be sorry for”. It’s stupid crazy to me how afraid people in Europe are of talking about these things. And maybe because it’s all been on a relatively small scale compared to the US, it’s easier to lie and omit facts, but it also compounds the problem the further we go because nobody - except the people experiencing it - can imagine racism being a thing and certainly not something they could inadvertently be guilty of.
I think you are confused about the concept of colorblindness.Colorblindness its the philosophy that people should be seen as people regardless of the race and that principle should be applied to law.
This ain't just food for thought, Issa whole buffet. Thank you for your rigorous knowledge sharing❤️ what's standing out to me in particular is the race-ethnicity-culture distinction and how we navigate that under the theory of racelessness.
Yes! 💛💛💛
CRT is necessary. But we have sooooo much to fix in the education system, infrastructure, prison, policing, healthcare, food regulation, social life, immigration etc. we got a lot to do.
You ain't lying
CRT is not necessary
I think you immigrants should fall back....yall really are just creating unnecessary obstacles at this point...
@@annechief4165 It’s really not. The fact it preaches that everything is racist or only certain groups can be racist when really everyone is capable of racism is a red flag and is not needed because it creates further division. Instead we should focus on fixing the eduction system and understanding that race and how it’s viewed can be complex with a lot of gray area. For example contrary to popular belief white people were not the only ones to have slaves or oppress back people in the US. Rich black people had slaves and even Native Americans had slaves that not only worked their plantations, but were used to procreate with in an attempt to make up for a tribes small numbers, but in doing this they were still just seen as slaves and didn’t have rights in the tribe. It truly is a disservice how history isn’t looked at full circle in the US.
@@tiahnarodriguez3809 OMG, thank you. I always say history should be taught and people tell me, that is what crt is, which is the opposite. People that want it are the ones that really don’t know what it is about.
I guess that makes me a constructionist eliminativist. The way I see it, race isn't real, but people believe it is and that effects peoples lives in very tangible ways, in other words a social construct, however, it is first and foremost a hollow institution that has done little more than create needless suffering, ergot, along with a host of other such things, it must ultimately be disposed of. There was a time before it, there can be a time after it. People are treated poorly because they are categorized one way and that manifests in a number of ways such as mass incarceration, over policing, and a whole host of other issues. It is a fiction, but a dangerous one. It's a lot like money. Money only has the value it does because people are invested in the notion that it has this inherent concrete value and money sure as hell has caused more pain than it's worth.
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Wholeheartedly agree. You said it perfectly
This perfectly explains all my thoughts about these topics 💕🤩❤️
Thank you!
Tbh I don't agree over all that money has caused more suffering than it is worth because we have enabled every single opportunity in the world because of the invention of money. I agree there has been a lot of pain, but not more than the love and happiness it has generated.
Intellectually I know race doesn't have any merit beyond the history we have created around it. That is the struggle we have to get past in order to free ourselves from the devisive idea of race.
💛💛💛 Amen!
You have such a pretty name btw.
It’s complicated!!!
I felt emotionally exhausted after watching this video. I think you did a great job attempting to explain this subject that you’re not an expert in.
I really appreciate the expert consultant. Keep up the good work.
Oooh take a break and drink some water!
💛💛💛 I giggle when someone refers to me as an expert in anything. 😅😅😅 “It’s complicated!!!” Facts.
It’s interesting because in my country (Sweden) we do not talk about “race”, it would kind of feel offensive? Race is something we talk about when we talk about dog races for example. When it’s about humans we talk about ethnicities and there is only one “race”, the “the human race”. But it’s important to keep in mind that Sweden has a very complicated history with “race biology”
same in germany. We don't even use the german word for "race" (except when talking about animals) because it reminds us of the Nazis.
@@samtae6217 interesting, had no idea!
That's true for whole Europe becausr of the Nazi and it's actually a huge issue because it makes it really difficult to talk about racism, because Europeans really cling to colourblindness.
@@chicquie5471 not classifying humans as different races has nothing to do with colorblindness. Race theory is the root cause for for genocides (no not only in Nazi Germany), slave trade, colonialism. The problem in Europe is that many people struggle with different cultures and lifestyles which leads to racism. That is the problem we have to tackle. What is the white race? What is the black race? After how many generations do you transition to another race bc you are not visibly white /black anymore? Do we go back into color charts and measuring facial features to cluster people into races? Like Nazis did with Jews and Sinti and Roma? Or what happened with the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda? Its a social construct and one that has brought a lot of evil and damage to the human world
There are some black americans in Sweden who promote this social cunstructonism and black identity. I think its because their race is their identity, where as other immigrants would just talk about their country or religion. Also they want to be seen as different maybe.
I think the heart of all of this is identity. We grow up seeing everyone put in categories. People expect certain personality traits, likes, dislikes, habits, etc from just about anything, not just skin color. For instance, an American eats a lot of junk food, someone who dresses "goth" wouldn't like country music, old ladies have to be sweet and wholesome. We are all individuals. We can be so many things and we shouldn't have to feel pressured to be a certain way. That's why the whole coconut/oreo thing is so ignorant. People are so much more than their color and they're also more than their ethnicity. There may be cultural norms, but everyone deviates from them - that's being an individual.
This!!
In my mind I always sound as good as Khadija, but the words never come out right so I end up sounding "racism bad" like idk how people can vocalize so well exactly what they want without messing up!
You didn't see all the outtakes lol I'm constantly like, "does this even make sense???" so you are not alone in that feeling., trust me
Yessica, this this this
Same.
exactly 😭
Honestly would be much better if we were just individuals with varying cultural/ethnic influences full-stop.
Sounds a lot better than just turning entire continents into blobs like Avatar the Last Airbender
In defense of ATLA it is a recurring theme in the comics after the war that zuko leaves the colonies and starts a “comunity restoration” with the Avatar, in which they try to separate who is what race and send them back to fire nat to “restore balance”. Which is something that toph, their friend who actually lives in one of those cities and has a metal bending school, oposes as well as the people living those mixed communities. It is seen as a conflict between interests, with main characters in opposing sides, i don’t think the creators just made them separate blobs out of bias but actually played into how they interact between themselves too
@@helenaap2042 It’s only worth so much since Nick couldn’t be bothered to get this animated.
@Lauri London omg its fine. You seem overly worried
@Lauri London its not even an issue. Its a common thing to happen when doing worldbuilding in a fantasy setting
@Lauri London What? No I mean as in dividing the world into like 5 different groups like Avatar does (Air, Earth Fire etc.)
Avatar is okay though since this is legitimately how the lore works haha
I feel like social constructivist eliminationism is possible. Saying "race isnt real, it shouldnt be real, and we should work to make it less legitimized." whilst simultaneously acknowledging that racialized black people are in danger of police brutality, or that indigenous women are being killed and trafficked at an exponential rate.
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That is a more powerful and consistent message than " Discriminating against black people is bad, but we should still be seen as different". Pointing out that people act racist works, because you oppose racist ideology in every way.
I agree, but hesitate. Because we do have different histories. Many black communities in America are historic and are the descendents of enslaved peoples. That has radically shaped and affected their trajectories, and that will always be true even when people stop being racialized.
@@DreamersOfReality That's an ethnic and cultural thing, however.
This has given me the courage to, as a proud black woman, finally come to terms with something: ion really be seasoning my food like that.
Like…. I’m good with just salt and pepper. It don’t even have to be a lot.
😭😭😭😭
Khadija/PhilosophyTube/ContraPoints would be the crossover of the century. Endgame who?
When I was living in Peru, I was the 1 out of 3 black people in my class, but once I moved to South Africa I learned that there I wasn’t considered black because my parents were black and another race mixed people. It was so hard to explain it that I just started identifying with the term latina or mixed to avoid having to explain how race works in my origin country. (it was also interesting when they used my origin country for a race study in my anthropology class)
As a peruvian, I understand that weird relationship with race
Hey! Me encantaría saber a qué conclusiones llegaste en tu estudio (sorry for the spanish, sometimes my bilingual fails me lol)
eliesundesastre it was a study that I was not conducting, but by someone else in my uni, and their main focus was if the word “black” to refer to someone’s race should be changed in the context of South Africa, because of all the different ethnic groups and foreign African countries’ group that exist in the country and how “black” doesn’t define them all. So for that, Brazil was used as an example of another meaning that people use for what a “black person” looks like and the experiences they might go through. I’ll try to find out if they have published the study and update you if they have!
@@larissa6732 Wow, that must've been a cool academic experience. Studies like that are such a cool opportunity for nuance. And I would love updates when it's done! 🤗
Frida Saavedra ikr, I can count on one hand how many times we touched on race at school and I don’t think I was ever singled out for my race, it was confusing when I got to another country where they didn’t think of me as black and the reason why I would be “black” were based on stereotypes and on the “one drop rule”
I was just thinking I'm going to need to watch this a couple times to grasp it when you got to the part where you said that's OK and it took you awhile.
This is one of your more definition heavy, academic heavy videos and I'm excited to re-watch it a couple times.
It took me years…and it was my own mind. LOL However, I didn’t have the benefit of access to someone like me until very recently. I hope you’ll feel inspired to come over to my channel for more thinking aloud! 💛🙏🏽
Khadija is genuinely one of the most diplomatic youtubers i’ve ever come across on the Internet. And they’re so talented too. They talk about such serious and even uncomfortable topics yet also manage to make their videos amusing and lighthearted, while still getting their points across. major respect for Khadija.
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"There's only one race, the Human Race." "what about NASCAR!?!"
Joking aside very informative video and really gives a bunch of stuff to think on and explore further
What about bobsledding? 🤣
This is an excellent analysis! Thank you for the time and effort you dedicated to this video.
I’m an advocate for the abolition of gender, which has been a concept I’ve easily adopted and understood. This is the first time I’m hearing an argument for racelessness, and I think you presented it in a very comprehensive way that draws parallels with the theory of gender abolition. Of course, you do this while perfectly emphasizing a respect for each individual’s freedom to express their identity in whatever way they desire, which is important.
Thanks again Auntie ❣️
Yes! The abolition of race coincides with the abolition of gender in meaningful ways. 🙏🏽💛 People have been asking me questions about such correlations more and more recently.
Okay, So I live in France right now. I go to University for Sociology. I have so many questions to run by y'all.
For those of you who don't know: France as a country does not collect racial statistics or implement positive discrimination.
There are no statistics about representation in Higher education, workplaces, or economic demographics.
I don't usually disagree with my Profs about much: but this subject irked me.
For one: they refused to address the fact that there is practically no representation in the course material. We talked about W E B Dubois: but as a footnote in the history of American Sociology. While every other major thinker we read at least one of their works: they wouldn't even talk about his theories: stating that he was mainly influential in Actionable Sociology, not Theoretical.
I couldn't help but think that this was tainted with Tokenism, and Eurocentrism, but because the subject of race is taboo, they refuse to discuss these ideas.
I suppose I'm just wondering how Eliminationism would work in a world that is still tainted by Colonialism, colorism, featurism, and the yet to be addressed economic opportunity issue?
I thought that the discussion surrounding race at this point was encouraging individuals and groups to:
Question our innate racist tendencies
Question others
Elevate the voices of people of color
increase opportunities and visibility of people of color
.....
generally, work towards undoing the effects of past injustice.
Then, move towards a raceless society...
Isn't there more work to do? Wouldn't eliminationism force a society to not talk about race, and racial issues?
I mean, from what I can see in France: last year during the Black Lives Matter protests: the government and news publications legit blamed the influence of American Cultural Values as to why the protests sprang up. I feel like I live in a nation that's gaslighting a portion of its' population for questioning its inherently, and unintentionally racist systems.
Thoughts?
They are really helping understand the scope of my own intellect. I used to feel like having learning disabilities = not being as smart or not being able to learn but they have really helped me figure out that the way I was being taught was wrong not that I was doing anything wrong. Thank you so much for making learning so accessable and digestible!💙💙
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I don't think your forehead is big and also there is nothing wrong with a big forehead. You look fabulous as always. Love your videos ❤️❤️❤️
I have the ultimate 5- head, lol. Yours is nothin’ 😜
I personally think the forehead is very pretty 🥺
Ikr, idk why we tend to grow up making fun of big foreheads when I don’t think they add anything “negative” to anyone’s appearance
When did a big forehead become a bad thing? In my backwoods Canadian childhood, we had a stunning repertoire of insults, but this was never one of them. I’m sure it’s global capitalism, we needed more insecurities etc...
Valérie Levasseur it really is, idk where it comes from nor what they could sell us to “fix” it, but it always begins with 3-head, then 4-head and when that’s not enough it follows with the comparisons, so it’s somehow never small enough and somehow always a problem
I learned about this when I took an anthropology class in college. Can't believe this isn't household knowledge by now! Race is a construct!
Every one of your videos is another step in the right direction. Amazing and eye-opening! I do appreciate your inclusion of Fred Hampton and how those with power really don’t want positive change in a way that shares power. I do truly hope that voices like yours are amplified and spread around the world and shape the future by reaching people and helping us understand the real impact and positive change we all can make. Sometimes it can feel like we are all stuck in our limited tribes and echo chambers and I really hope your voice and the voices of those you highlight like Dr. Sheena Mason get out into the world more and more. Thank you for sharing your thought processes on this “controversial” and super important topic (controversial in quotes because the controversy is manufactured by those who fear losing the status quo). Be well 😘
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I’m on board with racelessness, actually I felt this way for years. It started with the race being a social construct. I’m not so sure about critical race theory now, I was anti but I need to investigate a bit more.
I really love this video. Gonna be thinking about. Thank you!
Wow watching this after kat blaque's race play video is just mindblowing
This was such a goddamn good video. As a racialized black woman I have always had an issue with how we talk about individual "race". I always thought the word "race" was othering and it placed people of different ethnicities in these categories that I now see are naturalist. The theory of racelessness is certainly something I am interested in because it explains exactly what I have felt for years.
I come for the perspective and I am never disappointed. I will ruminate. These essays are becoming a necessary part of my diet.
The way I see it, getting rid of race is the ultimate goal bc it is inherently a harmful concept but it has to be done in steps. We can't just ignore race as racism still plays a huge role in society. Social constructionism is most productive in present day and is a necessary step to eradicating race. Similar to how socialism isn't the goal (anarcho communism, getting rid of the state, mutual aid is) but socialism is much better than the current system we have right now. It's all about taking steps toward progress.
Great video! Thanks for the shout-out!
Hi Khadija, I've been learning a lot from your videos, thanks for that. I'm a Brazilian WOC and I do need to read more about this theory of racelessness. At a first glance, all I can say is that it triggered all my red flags, precisely because of what happened in Brazil. Brazilians in general are so averse to the idea of race that racism itself ends up being swept under the rug. Brazil (especially now with the nasty far right in power) likes to portray itself as a 'racial democracy' where race doesn't matter coz it ain't even real and therefore racism does not exist. Why am I mentioning this? I don't know exactly, but my feeling is that this theory of racelessness could be easily distorted in order to cement the systems that are already in power.
Yes, I get the racialized bit, and in my humble opinion the mere knowledge that race is something that others attribute to me does not make me feel much better. Because end of the day the problem still persists, and these theories might very well be highjacked and turned into something even nastier to people who are not white. It is indeed very complicated stuff and again, my opinion will probably change as I read more about the topic, but at a first glance this is how I feel, and I did feel like sharing here. Thank you, I love your channel!
As a white person, I’m worried about the eliminativist stance. Not because I wanna stay top dog on the race hierarchy, but I think implementing it as an individual is hard from a white pov. If I ever try to argue this to other white people, I have a feeling that I’m just gonna sound like someone advocating for color blindness or something. Am I wrong in thinking that or is there a way around that potential pitfall? Maybe I missed something 🤷♀️
Edit: just got to the colorblindness part of the video. Still worried about how this argument can come off, but it makes a little more sense now.
@Mithni That’s true. I like the check a box example you use, that might make it easier to explain to others. Thanks
listen i questioned these things the same way you’re doing right now. if you want peace on earth youll be surprised to find it not to be an “idea” or a “thing” but a Person.
wrote this on IG and Possibly off topic, but something interesting I learned that made me
come to realize that race was a purely a European invention was the actual origins of the “black” race itself. Black and darkness being associated with evil, or general bad thinks was not a mistake. Early Shakespeare era European playwrights would actually portray undesirable foreigners in blackface including Italians, Jews and French people. When Europeans began to colonize and enslave natives from Africa, they adapted the term “black” for these native Africans to erase their pre colonial national/ethnic identities and to dehumanize them. As a kid with immigrant west African parents, it does make me cringe when I see the pan Africanism and the over attachment to “blackness” (black pride, black Excellence, black is beautiful) that I see in African descent people in America, as many times they don’t understand that “blackness” and the racial system they see themselves through is completely a invention created by their European oppressors as well, as a way to erase their identities Ana culture. I remember I asked a former friend from Gambia, to do a sign in form for a immigration study/showcase project I did in my undergrad program, and she force wrote in Wolof for the “race” category for the questionnaire form. It really brought how much these race identities were forced on African descent people.
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@@FreeYourMindTR forgive the grammar mistakes I can’t type in these nails 😩
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I had to relisten to Part 4 of this video because it's making me ask myself why it is easier for me, who has been racialized as a white man, to believe this concept of racelessness compared to Critical Race Theory? And is that because of my race?
I think a large part of why 'white' is seen as the default is because 'white' is, in a lot of ways, not an identity like other races. I think 'whiteness' is uniquely different from other races because 'whiteness' is defined by what it isn't rather than what it is. It is in many ways the absence of race, or... Racelessness, and I think that's why people who take pride in their whiteness can be so easily identified as racists who will find it to be a double standard when racialized black people take pride in their blackness (Because it's not the same thing). (And of course, the problem with whiteness being considered the default is that it's inherently exclusive, just to cover bases. Not supporting the notion, just explaining why that thought might exist).
So to me, who has been racialized as a white man, race is something that I don't identify with. There's almost nothing there in whiteness *to* identify with, other than maybe saying you've not been otherized, and I don't see how a healthy identity would come from incorporating that into me as a person.
CRT is not asking me to like, be shameful of America's history as a white man (my father was born and raised in Turkey, I have no personal relation to these people outside of what I had to read in history books growing up), but it *does* ask me to *consider race as a part of my identity* when I consider how that has affected me in the social and legal systems that uphold race.
The theory of racelessness says we can analyze the impact racism has had by being encoded into our social and legal systems, and how that affects the modern day, and we can deconstruct those and build a better future, but what we *don't* need is for you to identify with a race. And I like that a bit more, personally.
I know Khadija said she took a lot of time digesting and mulling over this information, but I've only had this for a few hours. Hopefully a month from now I'll have a much better idea of what I think about this stuff, and I'll be a better person for it. Thanks for the video, Khadija.
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this is really interesting. as a mixed person i’ve always wondered what I really was ? plus with social media i’ve seen people defining blackness in various ways and that didn’t help. but with that video i understand ! so thank you for making this theory less hard to understand
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Really think about the concept of "back culture." The vast majority of black people in the world are not in the U.S. What does an African American have in common culturally with, say, a random guy from Rwanda, who does not speak English, has never stepped foot in the U.S, has never heard a note of rap or hip hop in their life, wears completely different clothing, speaks a completely different language, has a different religion, eats completely different food and even uses different facial and physical expressions. Little to nothing? African Americans are indeed more similar to white Americans than to that hypothetical Rwandan man (I know there are many Rwandan people with access to international culture which is strongly influenced by the U.S, but I digress). What you mean when you say Black culture is indeed African American culture, and what you mean when you say "white people don't have culture" is "there is no 'European American' ethnic group as there is an 'African American' ethnic group in the U.S. because of the specific characteristics of historical, ethnic, racial, migratory and assimilation-based cultural practices of the U.S."
This video was really eye-opening. And like any other good theory, I feel like so many of its core components can be placed onto other intersecting identities to make "genderlessness", "sexuallessness", "nationlessness", etc. as a tool in said forms of abolitionism.
This is analogous to the whole, "The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference." The opposite of racism isn't race-consciousness, it's racelessness."
I always wrestled with the idea of being "aracial" the same way one could be agender. I thought it would be offensive because I'm relatively pale skinned, I had some privilege and it wouldn't be fair not to identify with the racial group I was assigned. Then I thought no one tells amab agender folks that they have to identify as Male because assigned male privilege invalidated any gender identity.
I think that Race can always be taught as a Historical context, but that also means we should do our bests to understand how races and diversity were viewed at the respective time, and not try to implement our modern context of race on to these things.
I love that you brought up “aracial,” as it’s a term that came across my desk within the last week or so. I’m still learning more about the history of the term, the context…but it’s interesting when considered alongside my philosophies of race (skepticism eliminativism). Instead of aracial…at least for now…I tend to prefer human. But I’m very particular about language, its genealogy, and what I apply to myself. 💛
If you can identify as "aracial" would that imply that terms like "transracial" and "cisracial" would exist? I don't think its 100% parallel with gender identity but i do think everyone should have a choice in not wanting to identify with race
Fascinating video. Definitely given me more food for thought. In terms of the philosophies, I find myself really leaning towards being a social constructivist with some of that skeptic mindset and wanting to eliminate race, but I also think that reconstructionism should come first as a middle ground. I am very interested in your future video (if you make one of course, can't recall if you said you were doing it 100%) about "oreos" because as a racialized black person who has grown up experiencing, hearing, and being told I was an oreo for being interested in anything that wasn't "black culture", I would love to hear your thoughts and perspective on it and revisit the words I've been told with my more open mindset compared to elementary and middle school me and even college/early adulthood me. I also saw Shanspere's video on the topic a while back and it was fascinating as well. Great video Khadija!
Excellent. Reconstructionism is the middle ground and has been for centuries. There’s no time like to present to look toward eliminativism. We’ve spent more than enough time reconstructing. 💛🙏🏽
This reminded me of the current status of queer topics, in which you are saying yes we exist but the future should be getting rid of this social labels and understand that we are all humans with our own likes and dislikes, even the subcategories of nature, social and non existence are part of the debate over there too, great video as always, thanks for your efforts on opening this topics for all of us
i can't find the right words to say how awesome this vid is, so i'd just say thank you very, very much!
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You've given me a lot to think about. I'm realizing that it takes me longer to (quietly and without insulting others) accept new ideas/terminology (like the idea of gender fluid or non-binary people). So, having this theory and philosophy has blown my mind. I like the idea, but I can't wrap my head around it. This might take me sometime.
I think I'm a social constructionist, BTW.
💛💛💛 It took me a few years. No rush. 😅😅😅
I was literally talking about this last week… our cultural upbringing and values say more about us than our skin color and hair texture.
I won’t hold you- every time you pop up I want to listen to the knowledge you’re dropping but that song “so this is love” pops into my head every time lol your so damn gorgeous
This video and videos like this are like deprogramming and learning all in one. It can be hard to confront your own subconsious biases and social conditioning but I feel its precisely the way to go when it comes to both learning and growing as a person.
I cried a couple of times during this just out of pure clarity
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Honestly, this was divine intervention for me lol I find this perspective so helpful. 🙌🏾✨
I'm so glad. It might work for some people and definitely not for others. When I first heard about it I was like, "uh-uh I'm Black" lol it's been nice dissecting this and finding a new vantage point to discuss my personal relationship with race
My god. This made so much sense. Thank you for making this video and for always promoting open-mindedness and the expansion of one’s mind through conversation and critical thinking- luuuuuuvvv ya sooo damn much ♥️♥️
When the final thoughts section is 20 minutes you know its a good one. Also I can't believe I just watched you interview a professor online FOR FREE. As always I'll be letting this video marinade. You are a genius!
I’m talking anywhere and everywhere about philosophies of race. 🥰💛 This was my favorite collaboration, though, which is saying a lot. ♥️
This was an incredible video essay and I'm definitely gonna have to re-watch it for my brain to stomp those pathways into place now that they're open.
I feel like this breaks open a lot of really important topics in need of development. The one I'm most hooked on is that it's an excellent response/means of expanding the conversation with people who do the "colour blindness" approach that was talked about. Those people who say "Can't we all just be the HUMAN race?" as a means of avoiding the work while still appearing progressive. The Theory of Racelessness encapsulates the deconstruction and emotional labour that still needs to be done if we sincerely believe that the ideal future is one of simply being "the human race".
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, and for directing us to Dr. Sheena Mason. There's so much to learn here, I'm excited.
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Khadijah really my baby. 😌♥️
Every time I see her on my feed I smile, and then I click, and *learn* something. Love you girl.
I am a white girl here in Brazil, but if l go visit a place like the US, I wont be white anymore, l will be brown latina.
This was SO enlightening! Never had the words to explain the way I feel about race and how I feel we should treat it…and now I do! Thank you for your awesome content! Always enjoy your videos!
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As a white English girl (who does kiss her dog on the mouth, I know, she's my baby) thank you so much for your content. Not only do you make me and others think in a different way but I love your take on these topics. Thanks for cracking open minds on such important and difficult topics, plus you bring such an elegance and whit to it, thank you Khadija
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I've been wanting to talk about racelessness on my channel for a while now, and I just wanted to say thank you for doing such an incredible job putting this video together. Racelessness is an inherently controversial and fraught topic to cover, but it's wickedly important to bring up in the wider discussion.
So, now there's one less video on my "ideas" Google Doc!
Girl I think you should tart a podcast. This is podcast material forsure!!!
Before watching this video, I never really thought about racelessness bc I just saw it as another description or characteristic like nationality and ethnicity. No different than describing types of flowers.
I felt the bigger issue was attaching a hierarchy or superiority complex to that description or to how someone is born. Meaning just saying one is inherently better than the other or the belief that someone could be born superior. Then creating a society and systems around it. What do you have left when you take that hierarchy or hierarchical system away?
Sometimes I wonder if race as we know it dissapeared or never existed, would something else take its place and have the same effects bc of some people's desire to feel like they were born superior.
I think it would be interesting to dive into why some people feel that way and how societies or systems are built from that.
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Really interesting. Dr. Mason's model seems like it can truly help people rethink the way they conceptualise race and racism, as well as a way to combat racism. Great video.
I think I’m also a social constructionist/skeptic. I’ve always understood that race was constructed on ignoring culture and ethnic differences and simply using phenotypic all similarities to group and categorize people. In the U.S. our society is so racialized because it comes from the top down and from coast to coast racialized black Americans experience the same racial realities in terms of mistreatment and abuse.
However, I really agree that there are many people who are not in the business of taking race out of how we see each other and are more interested in creating hierarchy’s within the racialized group dynamic. We’ve seen it in how patriarchy has become such as terrible scourge in the black community by racialized black people who simply want to feel ahead of others.
As a racialized black person in the US though I agree that there is still a black culture as a phenomenon that in a melting pot of the diaspora that many closely identify with.
Love the video and I will be bringing these thoughts and this convo to life with those around me!!!
Hey Khadiha! I’m a huge fan. Could you possibly do a video on the ethnic distinctions that exist between black people in the United States? You briefly touched on this topic at 32:23 when you speak about your identity as being African but growing up in a Black American environment. From what I’ve observed as an Afro-Caribbean American, Black Americans have a diverse array of ethnic backgrounds whether they be African American (the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the US) Afro-West Indian and Afro-Latinx (the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Caribbean and Latin America) or African (those who immigrated directly to the United States from Africa). I’ve seen a lot of discourse and contention about what these ethnicities mean and whether there should be unity among us as people of African descent. I’d love to hear your take and it would be cool to discuss this further!
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Somehow I just deiscovered your channel yesterday and since then I have been BINGING them. I love the way you strutucture your videos, moreso the nuance you bring to each topic.
I'm been thinking about race a lot in the last few years particularly given the murder of George Floyd took place in my hometown in a neighborhood I grew up visiting every week because it was the closest place my family could buy Mexican food/groceries. (My parents are immigrants from Northen Mexico, while I was born and raised in rural Minnesota, US) As a Mexican-American with medium tan skin, I NEVER knew what to state as my race on any demographic survey. Ethnicity wise I identify as Latina/e, but that's obviously not a race. I've already been working towards the idea that I have no race (although in colonial Mexico, I guess my race would be mestizo since I have primarily Spanish and Indigenous descendency and an enslaved African ancestor) in the US, which does lean towards the skeptism mindset. I experience the effects of racism in my daily life because I am not racialized white or whit passing, but yet I have no race. I think looking at the concept of race through the lens of "Other Race" people, like me, particularly when talking about race in the United States, understanding race as a social construct starts to fall apart more easily and we can embrace the idea of racelessness hopefully more easily. Like it was started in the video, I don''t want my perceived race via my skin tone to be erased per say but to be a visible cue to the experiences of racism that I have gone through and that my suffering is that of a human being. To see me is to see my beautiful brown skin, my queerness, my gender, my faith, and my disabilities and thus my humanity.
As one of my theology professors has stated "racism is the original sin of the Americas" and race is the most obvious symptom.
Okay gonna go watch more of your content, now.
I’ve never had to rewind a video so much but I love it. “Rewind” means I’m really old leave me alone.
This video was interesting to watch and definitely gave me a lot to think about. I think when you broke things down and summarized things towards the end helped a lot with digesting the concepts you were explaining.
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Just to expand on that comment a little bit after taking a day to think about it. When I first heard the theory of racelessness, viscerally it did feel like colorblindness and I was kind of taken aback. To me, race was clearly and immutably real. I would not want the experiences of people erased by ignoring the interconnectedness of race in their stories (and my story). One of the important realities for me to consider that I knew about intellectually but I had not fully thought out to my modern understanding of race (and what we should do about it) is how it was a complete garbage fabrication for the purpose of subjugating our fellow humans. With that in mind, eradicating that very concept of race seems like the only possible way forward. That quote about using the master's tools to tear down the master's house is incredibly poignant when thinking about the Theory of Racelessness.
Thank you for this! I've struggled for so many years to explain to people how I view race and the only word I had was colorblind but it never sat right and I would say things like "it's not that I don't see people's skin color or acknowledge our differences, I'm just saying that I see a person first and they just happen to have that shade of skin tone". I was never trying to ignore or pretend like racism didn't exist but colorblind never worked. The theory of racelessness definitely falls in line with my genuine beliefs about race. So thank you again for sharing this! It has helped me so much.
This was a DELICIOUS video. The academia. The consultation with an EXPERT. The sheer length, volume, and quality. Thank you Auntie Khadija for our meal🥺🤲💛 Please, I would love to see more videos like this, I look forward to watching these types of videos like a little treat.
I feel like i fall in between Social Constructivism and Skepticism but I'm more of a reconstructionism than an eliminationist because racism is not going away anytime soon so getting rid of it is gonna take a hot minute
Commenting again because I wanted to add what "culture" is for me as a Black American that isn't a daughter, granddaughter, nor great-granddaughter of immigrants. I'm that slave descendant, rando DNA in the bloodline, can't trace my last name pass a certain point, raised completely by other Black Americans, Black American (I say all that to acknowledge that "Black" is not a monolith and our varied backgrounds give us different perspectives and behaviors that are important. We have commonalities but we are still very unique. I just want to clarify my particular background in this "Black" diaspora we've been lumped into by others). I see my culture mainly in the common behaviors a great deal of us were taught as a result of having to be as upstanding as possible to reduce (hopefully) the inevitable discrimination we will face. I'm not a respectability politics player but many habits I have are a result of it; the code switching - verbally and visually, regular bathing (what is up with this non-bathing certain folks keep declaring?), not eating with my mouth open, elbows off the table (the amount of Whytes I've witnessed with bad table manners is astounding), an acquaintance with Christianity regardless of not practicing it myself, not "testing" my parent's patience (it's so weird when I see kids doing this as a prank to prove some point).
Because a lot of Black Americans (not all, I repeat, not all) were raised with several of the same behaviors, it is often easy to become friends quickly. A few exchanges will let us know if that person was raised similarly to us and that is very comforting.
Your Google sponsor will save my life. I never again want to work a low paying job being abused in food and customer service to pay for my student loans on the side while working a full time job! Thank you for providing this information and opportunity!!
I think my issue with the theory of racelessness is that it gives all of the historical agency to white people and blames all people (including people of color and black people) identifying with the race they were racialized as for perpetuating racism. I think it's important to look at the formation of Blackness not only as a reaction to the unimaginable violence Africans experienced during colonization, but as a cultural identity Black people who experienced the beginning of colonialism could create when forced into diaspora or when living in shattered nations. I don't really think it's at all true or even makes sense to say that when you look at any given racial category that people might be socialized into, and to say well actually if collapse this category it's only made up of other things and only supported by racism. Is it really appropriate to collapse Blackness into just a list of different kinds of oppression enacted on the same group of people with no initial matter being acted on which would react and change over time? I also think part of what troubles me is that it seems to place the mechanism of racism as the categorization of people as opposed to actual violence and trauma? Racial categories emerged over time as colonization carried on it wasn't immediate. I think it makes sense to look at the ways that all social categories were changed by colonization in the same period of time. Not because they're the same but because their differences can highlight some things. Colonization and the European reaction against African systems of gender and sexuality played a huge role in the formation of a binary and compulsorily heterosexual understanding of gender which has created the gender system we live in today. But despite those histories of violence I don't think that you could argue that people having an individual experience of having a gender is only a product of that violent creation and enforcement of gender identities in the past. Certainly that's part of it and it enormously influences how people perceive and express their own gender but it would be incredibly invalidating and scientifically inaccurate (and really trans exclusionary) to say that gender doesnt exist. And even more so to say that people having gender identities is a mechanism of sexism and cissexism. Either way this this video is interesting and it's really exciting to hear you talk about racialization and socialization! I'm looking forward to more theoretical deep dives.
This is an interesting point. I also feel like it's okay for people to just have the identities that make sense for them.
This was the comment I was looking for. Thank you 🙏🏿
you really spoke to the one thing that was bothering me about the theory that i couldn’t put my finger on.
Yes we have to at least identify where the classifications and labelling of humans began.
That’s a great point you made there.
2:30 Mandatory replay for Khadija's wonderful short cover of Let It Be
Honestly could sit and listen to you educate the people for HOURS. You have a amazing personality and you put everything in a way that everyone can understand. Also love the tattoos and piercings
This video is on another level. Fascinating content!
As an air sign, I'll do my thing and change my mind when presented with new information. I'd like to add that I've never felt racialized until I heard about it from Latinamerican people living in the US. I've seen some sketches from a girl who "looks white" (blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair) but was born in Venezuela and therefore is considered a person or color. It made me very confused and curious about race theory! Now I'm very interested in racelessness theory and I'll learn more about the subject, thank you for bringing it to our attention!!
(Edit: typos)
💛💛💛 As I fellow air sign, I felt this.
girl, you really be out here working. the way this calendar has said august in the back for all of these videos and it's practically the second week in october?? it does not go unnoticed lol thank you!
As a French person, I found this video so fascinating because I know that America's relationship to race is very different from France's and I thought the points of view presented in this video are fairly close to what I imagine a French perspective would be on the subject (I'm probably generalizing there, though). Americans seem to be a lot more race-obsessed than we are (and I understand this comes from the 2 countries having a very different history). In fact, I know that for some French people learning English, it is quite baffling the way you can casually use the word "race" in English because in French, we do have the word "race" (spelled the same, pronounced differently, obviously) but it only refers to a naturalist definition of the word. Basically, if you use the word "race" in French, it kinda immediately sounds nazi...
I feel quite close to Dr Mason's theory but I would still say that the concept of race has a certain validity, not as an identity bur rather as a category of oppression. Although it is true that "race is not a monolith" in the sense that it grossly groups together people who really represent a variety of social, economic, cultural backgrounds, but that's kinda the point behind the concept of race: to create a monolith to justify oppression, and thus dehumanize the oppressed. I understand "race" as a category created by racism that, if you fall into a non-white race, will be the predominant way in which you will be perceived (in a racist system/society/structure, that is), annihilating the relevance of your social status, actual cultural background, personal achievements, etc. It wouldn't matter if you're African-American, Nigerian or Jamaican, you would still be labeled Black, you would be forced into a racial identity created by white supremacy in which skin colour or just generally what you "pass" as take precedence over anything else. If we want to fight racism, we have to maintain "race" as a category of oppression, that is to say we should acknowledge that however artificial race is, it is still used as a tool of oppression. For ex, if you're Black, probably quite a few people, whether they're doing it consciously or not, would only see you as Black, would only see you through the lens of race.
We can only hope that as we keep fighting racism and we move towards greater equality, the use for the word/concept of race will self-dissolve as in a perfect utopian world, it would have ceased to be relevant.
I hope you're not trying to let France off the hook by comparing it to America's race obsessed mess. France is just as racist and xenophobic.
WHEWWWW… A WORD INDEED.
@@sseraphim2818 No not at all, I did not mean to say that racism does not exist in France, because it sure does and the far-right is in worryingly good shape. What I meant to say is that the 2 countries have a different understanding of the concept of race. Our cultural identities are probably not as much shaped around "race" as it is in the US. For example, the French law technically does not allow to collect statistics based on ethnicity/race
Fantastic video! Thank you so much for putting all these important concepts together in such a clear way. And thank you, Dr. Mason, I look forward to your book coming out!
This is so much YES!!
I tries telling people this for years...and just get blank stares.....so glad more people are figuring this out and sharing the FACTS
I love supporting you. 👏🏾 i love this knowledge
I’m scared about the “bundle” that the Naturalism is… I’ve actually thought a lot about what race is and to me it is genetic. But stops there. There absolutely no “value” or hierarchy in any of them.
To me race is the way we call people that share the same “phenotypes”, probably because of an old connection with a people that evolved in a certain part of the globe (Europe, subsaharian Africa, East Asia, etc)… What’s the importance of that? NONE. It’s just something that determines how you look. Stops there. Just that. Literally, just looks. Like… black people usually have coily hair, eastern asians usually have a certain eye shape, white people usually have a certain nose shape, etc. just that.
The bigger issue is how much difference is “allowed” inside one “race”. There was a time when people believed that there were different races in what now we consider is “white” (slavs, latins, arians, jews, etc). After some time people decided to call everybody who are from European/Middle Eastern descent the same race (Caucasian). Then people started to say people from Middle East are “enough” different to be considered a different race (“Arabic”) and people strictly from European descent are “white”. So… where these differentiations begin or end is complicated…
And the differentiation gets even less noticeable when you consider how much we’re “mixing”. (And honestly using the therm “mixed” should be more normalized. People who look ambiguous don’t need to be thrown into different boxes all the time. You’re not Y or X, or A or B, you’re mixed! And that’s great!)
But yeah, socially speaking, I see the importance of it, as the Constructionist part.
It’s stupid to call them by colors though… there are eastern Asians paler then Europeans, and Indians darker than some people from subsaharian African descent. Calling people back, white and yellow when everybody comes is various shades os beige and brown is so weird.
Yeah I think that Khadija shouldn’t have just used white supremacists as examples of Naturalists and Conservationists. I don’t think I’m a Naturalist, but I agree with you that it’s possible to be one without being a white supremacist or any kind of supremacist. And many POC are Naturalist without being white supremacists (sometimes they’re Black supremacists instead, for example, but many times not).
I think I actually agree with you description that “race is the way we call people that share the same phenotypes” but I think I’m not a Naturalist because there is no reason to group certain phenotypes together in the way we have under the current racial categories, which means that race is socially constructed. Like, theoretically race could be determined solely based on skin tone, which would create very different racial categories than we have today. So to me, race is a social construction based in part on genetics, but those genetics were chosen/categorized for purely social reasons, not natural ones.
Exactly, while people have different physical characteristics, the way that these are categorized, grouped, and named are completely arbitrary. Naturalists aren't just people who have noticed that black people have darker skin, they are people who then go on to infer other things about all people who happen to share that characteristic, and those assumptions usually involve denying that systems of oppression exist and are the reason why certain groups seem to have an advantage over others.
As an mixed race Asian-American have very complicated feeling on race. When people ask me "what" I am I generally answer half Ashkenazi Jewish and half Indian. I normally do not answer with race only ethnicity. Culturally I feel more Indian than I do Asian. The traditions, food and languege I know are all specific to India and not Asia as a whole. However last year in college I took a history class about Asian-American people. One thing we learned about was how the racial category Asian-American was created by Asian-American Activists as a way to collectively organize those communities and to have more political power. I believe that even if I don't Asian-American we are stronger together than we are apart. Another thing that the class talked about related to the pan Asian label was that a lot of groups who don't fit into the sucessful Asian American stereotypes don't get as much support because they should. Cambodians and Laotians who come to the US as refugees and need help settling don't get the same organizing support as east Asians did with the "Stop Asian Hate" campaign. At my college campus there is an Asian-American/Asian Community Center. I know that there are not enough students of most Asian ethnicities at my school to support their own center so I think that being one group has definately helped there. I know that the hispanic/latino category on the census was also created with help from activists. It would be interesting to learn more about that.
I am a 56 year old Black woman born in the US, and I never heard of "jumpin' de broom" until I was in my 30s.... Hahaha White people are being racialised and they are angry about it and why they don't like critical race theory... priceless. Sorry for the spelling, the letter at the end of the alphabet no longer works on my keyboard. Widen the parameters by coming to change making using constructs from the perspective of the oppressed. NO? I really enjoy your videos, really really.
Wow, It feels like I got a whole new vocabulary I can draw on. I'll just go marinade my brain in them for a while. Thank you!
I hope this doesn't come off as rude because it's not meant to be...however I would have liked to hear more of Khadija's unbiased perspective. It's seems like a lot of her viewpoints were influenced by Dr. Mason but not in an organic way...if that makes sense.
It's because it's something I'm still figuring out! I wanted to explain it first as "unbiased" as possible so that people got the information before perhaps being influenced by my perspective. It's why I always have a final thoughts section so I can tell y'all how I feel about the thing I'm talking about!
And it didn't sound rude, but text isn't always the best format to understand tone so I appreciate your disclaimer!
@@KhadijaMbowe thanks for taking the time to respond!
i was taught a lot of naturalist beliefs by my family that even now im trying to unlearn. i want to believe and understand racelessness, and become more of a sceptic, but as i was learning about the types of race beliefs i didnt realize how much i had been keeping around, even after years and years of staying away from the people who taught me those things
This was dense, but thank you and Dr. Mason for making it accessible for the average person. I will be rewatching this video because I know I'll get more nuggets of wisdom out of it on a second time.
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I’m sorry but I’m 3 minutes in and I must say the “wait a minute hol onnnnn” GOT ME IN ACTUAL TEARS 😂 the comedic timing was *chefs kiss* okay back to the video now 😊
Travis is taking over editing for me now and I told him to roast me at every turn. He's doing a good job lol
@25:09 this blew my mind. I'm not kidding, I had that "oh my god you're right!" moment and I had to sit on my kitchen floor and just think about it
Girl..... do NOT disparage your forehead. It houses that AWESOME brain of yours, so NEVER AGAIN should you say anything negative about it. I LOVE your intellect and it is your best asset... your beautiful face is just the ICING my friend!! Love, peace and hair grease!
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You right and thank you for reminding me about myself. 💕