I do agree with many of Appiah’s arguments on the flaws of
our current conception of race, however, I still don’t quite understand how one
can ultimately hold an elimitavist view on the concept of race as a whole. I
don’t mean to be redundant from my previous post or prior statements made some
time ago in class, but the idea of separating ourselves by means of physical
appearances shouldn’t seem so scary. In fact, I think it’s necessary so long as
it is NOT used to actually divide ourselves into a hierarchy of inherent
accreditations and rights. Race can be used to promote diversity and serve as
an easy means of broadly classifying what we look like as well as where our
ancestors descended. How does Appiah
suppose we go on without grouping ourselves into differing categories again? As
I stated a while back, it’s hard for me to believe that, if we somehow did
manage to completely eliminate the use of the idea of race in modern society,
we would not more or less replace it with a new means of setting ourselves
apart that would prove to be just as scary and dangerous. The fact is: while we
are all overwhelmingly the same, we ARE different. Many of us share similar
traits that set us apart aesthetically from others, and as humans, we can
recognize this. I imagine people progressively classifying each other in new
ways, using new terms that correlate to the way we behave or the way we look
that, over time, collectively evolve into a new system of classification that
essentially mimics what Appiah wishes to eliminate today. The issue is not race;
it’s how we handle race.
Be that it may, I love diversity and variety,so we must keep the concept of race. I share the same views with you Joey. Keeping race around may not be bad at all as long as we dont place or push for "a heirarchy of inherent accreditations and rights" - (SideNote: great quote, I like how you put that!). Another point that you stated to which I strongly agree with, you said race isn't the issue, how we handle it is. That actually may be the key to moving the topic of race forward from its befouled past.
ReplyDeleteI think I understand what you're saying, and I agree. The differences that do exist between people are usually cultural (and physical), but I think that we should acknowledge and accept those differences. Of course I'm going to have to be a "negative Nancy" here. I do find that people would take this and, perhaps, put their negative addition to it like Nazis have done with other philosophers. For example, some people are against interracial marriage because "we're different." Of course this goes back to what you said (and Derrick mentioned, as well) about how we shouldn't push for "a heirarchy of inherent accreditations and rights."
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I agree with what you're saying, I just always have think of the generation that's still around that just needs to stop pushing their ignorant opinions onto others.