Delaware students can now choose their own race (Yes, RACE!) under new regulations.

[o_O.Q]

sundin13 said:

o_O.Q said: 

1) and yet we do, whenever someone says "black person" everyone understands what they are referring to, which is, a differentiation from a white person or an asian person

2) our interactions with each other are inexorably linked to appearance, we always take appearance into consideration when we interact with other people

your question relies on the assumption that we can just divorce our perception with regards to how we perceive each other from appearance 

so your question is nonsensical, it doesn't take reality into consideration

there's also other factors like people tending to have an in-group preference with regards to those who look like they do that are all linked right back into this, that you aren't even acknowledging but regardless they do play an integral role in how people interact

1) The common use of a classification system does not defend its necessity. Remember, we are talking about this in the context of broad relevance.

2) If you don't wish to answer my question, I will rephrase. What loss in utility is present by allowing self-identification within a school system which does not allow any form of discrimination based on race?

i never argued that the classifications people use are necessary, but i was arguing that they are inevitable

is necessary to call social awkward people nerds? is it necessary to call attractive women babes? is it necessary to call people who play video games gamers?

are you getting the idea?

you'd only ask this kind of question if you don't understand how people behave and interact with their environment and other people

we always seek out patterns and use those patterns to categorise things and again appearance is one of the most common patterns we use to categorise

that's where the idea of race came from... people saw different groups of people that looked different and as a result they categorised them as a separate group

 

"If you don't wish to answer my question"

""To conclude, I will first ask, why would it be harmful to move away from skin color based classification systems?""

as i stated above and in my other posts its not about whether its harmful or necessary, its about human behavior and our endless attempts to make sense of our environment which leads always to categorisation

to look at this as whether its about necessity or harm is stupid because the assumption is made that you can just snap your fingers and turn off human behavior where you don't want it manifesting itself

 

i mean lets take a fairly amusing example in this thread

this guy has as his stated aim the desire to stop categorisation because it separates people

PSintend0: "I find it funny that some racists try to cling on to biological races, the word itself, cultural differences and everything they can to seperate people"

but in the exact same post he himself uses a categorisation (some racists) to separate people... its fucking inevitable, it is a constant in human behavior that's why i can't address your question, because its nonsensical as i said

you are denying a fundamental aspect of human behavior by asking that question

 

"What loss in utility is present by allowing self-identification within a school system which does not allow any form of discrimination based on race?"

asking students to identify as one option out of a set of options is inherently discriminatory... since they are choosing one over the other

you understand that is the definition of discrimination right?