What is race?

[MAM]

What the hell is a race? I've always thought of "race" as skin pigmentation how do you define race?

The reason I'm asking this is because recently I had this guy try to convince me that racism was legitimate and somehow correct. One of the things he said was "Ever notice how the majority of Liberty people are white?"

Which honestly I haven't, because of three reasons 1. I don't know alot of liberty people 2. The majority of people are "white" here in the US. 3. I know alot of "white" statists.

[negator]

race is a way of arbitrarily classifying an individual.  or don't your people get that?

frankly, i think racism has outlived its usefullness.  i'd rather mate with the cro-magnons at this point, than kill them.  

some of them are pretty hot.

[poxodd]

What the hell is a race? I've always thought of "race" as skin pigmentation how do you define race?

The reason I'm asking this is because recently I had this guy try to convince me that racism was legitimate and somehow correct. One of the things he said was "Ever notice how the majority of Liberty people are white?"

Which honestly I haven't, because of three reasons 1. I don't know alot of liberty people 2. The majority of people are "white" here in the US. 3. I know alot of "white" statists.

Clearly white people aren't somehow naturally or genetically inclined toward liberty, considering it was the white people that enslaved the black people back in the days of overt slavery.  So it's pretty stupid to be racist because it's just the environment that people grow up in that makes people more or less statist.

[JustSayNoToStatism]

You did a good job of explaining the "most Liberty people are white" observation. But even if we granted it to him for argument's sake, and said it wasn't for the reasons you outlined above, why would that matter? Why would the actions of "most" people of a certain group matter? I thought he was an individualist. Sounds like collectivism to me. Last time I checked, most white people are statists, and the majority of statists are white. So fucking what?

[MAM]

You did a good job of explaining the "most Liberty people are white" observation. But even if we granted it to him for argument's sake, and said it wasn't for the reasons you outlined above, why would that matter? Why would the actions of "most" people of a certain group matter? I thought he was an individualist. Sounds like collectivism to me. Last time I checked, most white people are statists, and the majority of statists are white. So fucking what?

Actually I ended the converstation with "Even if you're right about everything, who cares? What's the payoff?" he didn't have an answer.

[dpalme]

You did a good job of explaining the "most Liberty people are white" observation. But even if we granted it to him for argument's sake, and said it wasn't for the reasons you outlined above, why would that matter? Why would the actions of "most" people of a certain group matter? I thought he was an individualist. Sounds like collectivism to me. Last time I checked, most white people are statists, and the majority of statists are white. So fucking what?

RHCP were my first concert, flea played that for an encore. Great show.

[macsnafu]

Generally, I would say that race is a matter of certain genetic differences, but since people of races can interbreed, so what?  And, as others have said, even if "race" is significant, it's still collectivism to treat someone as a member of a race first, and as an individual second, if at all.

[Hanzo]

I've always thought of "race" as skin pigmentation

Albino Africans:






I agree with macsnafu. Treat someone as a person first, race doesn't really matter.