About this race issue...I am curious to know what is the yardstick that is used to 'define' race?

Question

Does having dark or darker skin automatically put you in the one category? How mixed (or not mixed) does your ancestory need to be considered 'white' or 'black' or a 'person of colour'?
I ask because I have met people who I would have thought of as 'white' yet claim to be black and vice versa.
(This is a serious question and only serious answers need reply.)

Answer 1

Perhaps the links below could be of help to you in
answering your question regarding Mixed-Race.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1570
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1573

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/991
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1399

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1402
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1400

Related Links:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MGM-Mixed
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FGM-Mixed

Hope that's helpful

.

Answer 2

All you say in your statement is considered. Even some, not all American Africans are prejudice to their own if they have darker skin or lighter skin color. If one is of mixed race they claim one or the other, but not both. Perhaps because like Native Americans they do not care for the term used to describe a mixed Native and European ancestry. Which was/is Half-Breed. Cher put out a recording of how she felt about the term and how each culture disapproved of it when she was growing up. It was made to make one feel they didn't belong.

So to answer your question - it is the color of ones skin and their mindset about it.

Answer 3

Ethnicity refers to a classification of physical and genetic traits perceived as common to certain groups. In the UK these have been defined as:

White: British
White: Irish
White: Other
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean
Mixed: White and Black African
Mixed: White and Asian
Mixed: Other
Asian: Indian
Asian: Sri Lankan
Asian: Pakistani
Asian: Bangladeshi
Asian: Other
Black or Black British: Black Caribbean
Black or Black British: Black African
Black or Black British: Other
Chinese or Other: Chinese
Chinese or Other: Other

Skin colour is the most obvious clue to ancestry.

Answer 4

I think race is only an issue to those who bring it up as one. I am half chicano and half caucasian but all human! I believe the race/nationality really only effects certain people in a bad manner if they let it. Race can also define a person, through tradition and beliefs. Many people are proud of their race but may over display it in a quest to try and define themselves. This can be a very difficult ? But I see 2 simple answers. We are all one! and **sholes come in all colors.

Answer 5

Any group of people who share one or more of the following in common is a race:

Common history, nationality, culture, hereditary physical characteristics, geographic distribution, lineage

In other words, take me as an example...
My physical appearance is that of what is typically referred to as white. Therefore I am white.
I was born an raised in the United States, therefore I am American.
Just a couple examples of my lineage: German and Cherokee. Therefore, I am German and Cherokee Indian.

I often refer to myself as white since it's a widely used term and because it's short and simple.

But I prefer to be called human.

Answer 6

at school we were taught that there were 3 main 'races'
Caucasian- fair or brown skin, straight hair, round eyes (eg, europeans, arabs, indian)
Negroid-black skin, afro hair, round eyes (african)
Mongolian-fair skin, straight hair, almond shaped eyes (chinese, phillippines etc)
I think these 3 are the original 3 races but time, travelling and interbreeding has resulted in many more variations of this for example, there are a lot of black people with blue or green eyes and many white people with curly or even afro hair.
Perhaps many years in the future we will all be one race!

Answer 7

From what I've noticed, its whatever school of thought you choose to go with. One is that unless you are 100% white Nordic from Scandanavia, you are not white. The other is that everyone from Scandanavia down to North Africa, Middle East and India is white. Both are ridiculous.

Answer 8

As i'm sure you'll find out as you collect answers here, there are no clear cut definitions of what amount of melanin defines your race, it's just how certain individuals care to differentiate how they feel theirs is the only good one.

There's only one race, and we call ourselves humans.

Answer 9

seriuosly, if your not white ( very pale chalk - pink -red)

you can say whatever race you want to be, because if someone says that thats not true, you can start yelling "racist!"
and start sueing.

its sad, and now, its even got to a piont where you can claim a religion as a race... which strikes me as really strange.


if you are white, thats what you are stuck with, even if there has never been a white person in your family tree.

nowadays, it sucks to be white.

Answer 10

nian3555 and waiching liu are the ones reporting everyone for no reason, report them back and point out that people at Yahoo do not have the right to censor us just cos we don't agree or sympathise with them.