(February 16, 2015 at 11:29 am)Dystopia Wrote: "There is only one species" - Go tell that to everyone who suffered any form of racial or ethnic prejudice, discrimination, hatred and violence. Go tell them that race doesn't exist. And then come tell me if it really fixed anything. Scientists have already asserted with evidence that we are all one species, but that's not going to erase racism and ethnic prejudices. We need to talk about race and ethnicity to solve those problems - Not talking about it, like Morgan Freeman proposed, is ignoring the problem and allowing it to grow. Saying Jews aren't race, while biologically accurate, is dismissing every potential experience Jewish people face because of anti-Semitic actions. Islam itself is not a race, but Arab is, and saying it isn't is dismissing experiences of non-Muslim middle easterns who suffered discrimination because society thought they were Muslims
Better yet - Go tell racial supremacists that race doesn't exist and see how much that will work out of you - The only way we are going to embrace the fact we are all one species is by talking and pointing out our ethnic differences and proving it is not a relevant variable.
That is just it, right there. You stupidly think because I say we are the same species, I am saying your pain is merely something you need to "get over" it. NO just the opposite, you accept we are the same species, when you do that, that allows us to see all suffering as bad.
Instead what we have is HUMANS of any label, even within the same labels, pointing out their own suffering as if suffering is a patent held by one label.
When I was in Japan, my x wife took me to a museum that depicted their conflicts and their horrors of war going back way further than even WW1. It depicted their victims of war and genocide at the hands of China. And I am sure if you visit China they have museums that depict the horrors of their past as well.
Natives suffered at the hands of Christian Europeans. Blacks suffered at the hands of Christian Europeans. Christians and Muslims in Africa are equally brutal to each other.
All I am trying to tell you is that our cruelty that our species has always had the ability to inflict on each other, IS IN US. Unless we take labels out of it, we will use those labels and continue to inflict that harm on each other.
No one gets a pass. Bigotry exists precisely because humans use labels to divide and we think our particular club has a patent on our species suffering. You remember the suffering of all not just one. But you also do not get to hide behind it either to avoid criticism.
