With respect to all views....

[Hoda]

on the pro's & con's of Celebrating Black History Month. PL "History" has taught me, that this & other topics dicussed here lead to more division than resolution. We all have our opinions on the state of race relations not just here in the US, but the World as a whole! Each of us as individuals, can do more in understanding & acceptance of our differences, than by any other means. If you want to celebrate & reconize a cultural history , do so! If not...don't! It's your right to choose. Ignoring all cultural contributions, will just make you, one sad individual.

With this being said.....The thread will deleted shortly, before things get any further outta hand!

Peace in the Middle-East & every dayyum place else!

[soltero]

... in response to With respect to all views...., posted by Hoda on Feb 3, 2005

Anyone who comments on another groups cultural celebration in any way without first understanding that they are spouting an opinion without experience is doing so out of ignorance. I didn't get the opportunity to read the comments in that thread, but I would have liked to just out of curiosity. Unless you belong to a group, whichever group that may be, your comments have no basis in experience, so there is no way to support them. Anyone who is a true student of history knows that anything passed down lost it's purity a long time ago and the only way to truly know what happened was to have been there. Everything else is just theory and supposition, just as making statements on affairs that you have know way of understanding unless you are a part of them or they are a part of you.

[Heat]

... in response to Re: With respect to all views...., posted by soltero on Feb 4, 2005

I belong to no group.  Just my family.  I have a white daughter and a brown daughter

A half black/indian grandmother.  What race am I?   The answer is I am not a race. I am part of my family.

Race is used as a tool by politicians/scam artists to break us up in groups while they steal our tax money.

We are all a mix.  I find many "race" leaders nothing more than KKK wannabes.

We would all be better if we admit that race which has no biological standing.  Our DNA is just a hair apart.

Race is a scam.

[soltero]

... in response to Race is a man made thing., posted by Heat on Feb 4, 2005

I agree with you. We are all simply human. There are differences, but those are just environmental. All I was saying is not to judge what you don't have any way to understand.

[Pete E]

... in response to Race is a man made thing., posted by Heat on Feb 4, 2005

I think technically you are right.It used to be thought there were 3 major races,caucasian,negroid and mongoloid I think it was spelled.And there were differences between them.But in reality lots of groups of people were mixtures of the three.Like some of the south seas islanders.But in todays world in places like the united states people are a mixture of lots of races,including american indian which was within the old mongoloid classification.I understand in Hawaii there is not one person left of pure Hawain decent.
BUT,we cannot ignore history where groups of people were treated quite diffently,as was the case with people from Africa being brought to the United States and other western hemisphere country initially as slaves.Part of the rational at the time was that these persons were somehow less human than other persons therefor it was OK to treat them as slaves.Even after emancipation in the US these persons were and still are to some extent treated differently.Even more so in South America in my opinion.
So there was and is to a lessor extent today physical differences that still result in different treatment and discrimination.
Yes we are basically the same,genetically.But difference of appearance has caused historically much different treatment.
The solution in my opinion is to treat everybody as equally as possible,particularly under the law.I personally disagree with trying to define and treat different persons differently to make up for past wrongs.Its difficult to define and descriminates against people who had no responsibilty in the former discrimination.So I agree with you that playing the race issue to recieve seperate treatment is something we should not do.And when we see countries like Iraq and Yudoslavia break up and then regress to old tribal rivalries it might seem that all efforts to define people as seperate are counterproductive and cause strife.
But,we still have our own identification with our heritages and why not other people also,even if they have to try to recreate it somewhat after it has been torn apart.We can celebrate differences without them becoming sources of rivalry,hopefully.
But I do agree in a way,we should pay less attention to  our differeces and celebrate our oneness.
One of my heros,and not all here will agree for sure,is Ward Connerly who has pushed to eliminate that form of racial and ethnic descrimination called affirmative action.And I understood the basis of his last effort in California to make it illegal to classify people,therefore removing the mechanics of racism.But I opposed it.It would have made it illegal to study to what effect we still have racism,and I thought that a bad idea.But it did pass,people are tired of all this special race or group treatment.Me too.But we should not ignore evidence where it still exists.
I had to put in my opinion.Back to Latinas now I hope?

Pete

[Brandon2253]

... in response to My  $.02, posted by Pete E on Feb 4, 2005

I did some research on this topic for a paper and concluded that these terms will likely become archaic.  With the regional intermingling of people, these terms become much harder to define.  Some people are just undefinable; more everyday.

branodn

[OkieMan]

... in response to Race is a man made thing., posted by Heat on Feb 4, 2005

Heat,
You are like many of us, in one way or the other.  I call it Heinz 57.  Many of us are mixed.  Now, for my part, I am mostly white, but I am from Oklahoma (Land of the Redman).
I have a little Indian (Native American) in me.  But, both of my ex-wives had a lot of Cherokee Indian in them, so my kids have a good bit too.  My oldest son married a lady with a good bit of Cherokee in her; so now, my grandson does!  In Oklahoma, almost everyone has some connection to one of the Indian tribes (mainly, one of the Five Civilized Tribes).  One of my great aunts married a Choctaw Indian man many, many years ago.  So, I have Choctaw Indian cousins.  I could go on. I think instead of race, as some are referring to, we should say ethnic groups.  When some of you say race, or you are referring to what someone else has said; it almost sounds like you or they are referring  to a different race entirely.  In other words, not homo sapien!  We are all human, just different ethnic groups.  It appears that semantics are coming into play on this discussion.
So, to change the subject-- who is going to win the Superbowl?  Eagles or Patriots?

                            OkieMan

[Dr Aaron]

... in response to Race is a man made thing., posted by Heat on Feb 4, 2005

I think your argument could be more polished. First, you started off by calling people FOOLS. Was that necessary? No one insulted you.

Second, no one is denying that all mankind comes from a common ancestor, which science supports; and the DNA shows we are the same.

Third, you fail to realize that biological evidence has been ignored by political leaders, religious groups, families of everyday people, and even by so-called scholars throughout history. If they would have paid more attention to the truth (and not tried to hide it), which you seemed to realize, the world wouldn't have SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF RACE, which unforntunately play themselves out day after day during every generation.

So, with this all being said, YOU'RE RIGHT. From a biological perspective, there is no such thing as race. However, from a social perspective, RACE IS VERY REAL.

My original post was "HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH TO ALL PEOPLE". Given that we all come from a common ancestor, which was from Africa, theoretically Black History is all inclusive of every group's history. Black history is everyone's history regardless of which ethnic or "racial" group they claim to come from. The hard part is for everyone to appreciate their origin and their history.

What do you think about that?

Aaron

[Heat]

... in response to Heat, I agree with you, however, ...., posted by Dr Aaron on Feb 4, 2005

What do you think about that?

I think black history month is a joke.  A cruel joke.

It's part of the slave mentality that keeps people down.
Many people disagree with the idea that we should have any color history month.  But the racists on the black side of the SOCIAL race bar love it/  Why?  it gives them power over fools who go along with the idea of race.

When ya going get free and join the rest of us?  You sound so close.

[Malandro]

... in response to Heat, I agree with you, however, ...., posted by Dr Aaron on Feb 4, 2005

is that what you are saying it is??  I don't think the limited focus of the event corroborates your theory.

and I'm not sure exactly what known biological evidence historically has been repressed as you say.

[Pete E]

... in response to With respect to all views...., posted by Hoda on Feb 3, 2005

Howard,
I wouldn't have thought that thread would get so controversial.Celebrate it or  not,but I would say don't knock it.
If we can get in to so much disagreement over that watch out for a more difficult subject.
You got your job cut out for you here.It seems you yourself are less reactive and more tolerant  trying to fill your new role.
Lets don't try to seek out points of disagreement here guys.That happens easily enough without trying so hard.

Pete

[Malandro]

... in response to With respect to all views...., posted by Hoda on Feb 3, 2005

the study of history is fascinating I wish more people would do it.

this includes ALL history... the good, the bad, and the ugly

[Pete E]

... in response to I for one do not ignore and I believe, posted by Malandro on Feb 3, 2005

I can agree with that.But it seems seperate from ethnic celebrations.

Pete