Race and Sex
Oppressive Social Constructs That Need ‘Dismantling’ Or Biological Realities We Can’t Escape?
‘You don’t look Cuban’. I’ve heard this my entire life. Just writing this made me roll my eyes! If I had a dime every time I heard this, I’d probably have $1000. I remember growing up people used to ask me ‘is that Mexican man your stepdad’. Actually he’s not Mexican and he is my real dad. My mother was Irish and my father is from Cuba. I look very Irish and because of racial stereotypes and preconceived notions of what Hispanic or Latinos look like, most don't believe I could be Cuban. The idea many people have in their heads of Hispanics is varying shades of brown. But actually the Latino community is very diverse, unlike breakfast tacos (whatever those are). Latinos come in every color of the rainbow just like Americans do. I have seen ginger Hispanics with VERY White skin and red hair and Black Cubans with very dark skin. But for some reason seeing a light skinned Hispanic person is hard to believe. It’s so ingrained in our culture that our skin color determines our race. Many people are not even viewed as the actual race or ethnicity they are. Imagine what it’s like going through life being told you can’t be what you genetically are because you don’t fit their preconceived notion of it. It’s annoying to say the least!
But race and ethnicity truly are spectrum’s. There are some Black people who look White and some White people who look Black. The crossover between race and ethnicity, especially in a melting pot like the United States is truly spectacular. Our diversity in the US is part of what makes us great! And as we pass from generation to generation in this country we will become even more of a spectrum as we lose touch with our ancestral homelands.
Sex, on the other hand despite any new progressive pseudoscience, is binary. There is male and female, and unfortunately there is a VERY small percentage of genetic abnormalities (which are still male or female). There is no third sex. Sex is purely binary! Of course just like with race there is some crossover between our secondary sex characteristics. Men are typically taller than women but that doesn’t mean that an unusually tall woman is a man or an usually short man is a woman. There are some women who exhibit what we would typically consider more masculine traits and men who would exhibit more typically feminine traits. This does not mean there’s any sort of new sex or spectrum. You are male or female and there are 7 billion variations of them.
But there are innumerable variations of race. With sites like ancestry DNA we’re learning that race and ethnicity is more than meets the eye. You might have grown up hearing from your parents that you’re French and German only to learn that you’re actually Scottish, British, and Norwegian. And with a simple DNA sample we can learn exactly where our ancestors are from. We can also learn that our DNA, our ethnic and racial DNA can be different from that of a full brother or sister with the exact same parents. So maybe my DNA would say I’m 50% Spanish and 50% Irish but my brother's DNA could be 75% Spanish and 25% Irish. We know we get 50% of our DNA from each of our parents but we don’t know what 50% that is.
I remember growing up, in school there was a set of parents that consisted of a ginger very White father and a very dark-skinned Native American mother. They had two children, a boy who looked just like the dad and a girl who looked just like the mom. One would assume that both the boy and the girl would have 50% European DNA and 50% native DNA. But given how much they resembled one of their parents it’s entirely possible that the daughter who looked more like the mother had more of the mother’s racial DNA. And the boy had more of the father’s racial DNA. So even though the children had the exact same parents, their racial and ethnic makeup was significantly different.
Given that race and ethnicity is so varied and ambiguous, why are progressives so set on upholding race? Progressives state race is purely a social construct, created by ‘the Whites’ (who else) to oppress Black and Brown people. If that were the case why are they working so hard to uphold it while simultaneously trying to break down the actual biological category of sex? Its a wonder to me that progressives wish to uphold race as though it were the most important determining factor of an individual while attempting to dismantle the notion of biological sex which is not only scientific, and empirical but it also impacts our lives every day. It is absolutely critical that everyone knows what sorts of body parts they have. Our sexual reproductive organs not only create us but they can kill us! Telling people, especially children that their body doesn’t matter and their thoughts and feelings are more important, is beyond irresponsible and bordering on dangerous. There have already been cases of trans people who have died because they’ve ignored the organs that they have because of dysphoria or mental illness. We cannot allow people to degrade biology, reality, or science because it harms mental health. Cancer is stronger than dysphoria!
Given that race is very often ambiguous why uphold it but dismantle sex which is rarely ambiguous? It would be much easier to get rid of the category of race rather than sex. There are little biological differences between races. Sure maybe a White person is at greater risk of melanoma and a Black person may be at a greater risk of sickle cell anemia but these are nowhere near the vast differences between male and female. Often when our race is asked it’s merely for demographic or political purposes it’s rarely needed for medical purposes. So why do we continue to ask for it? Why do we continue to obsess over it? Why don't we move past it, live by the words of Martin Luther King Jr and judge each other by the content of our character rather than our skin color? It’s truly bizarre to attempt to dismantle biological sex which not only matters in a medical setting but in so many other areas from cradle to grave.
Race is a varied true spectrum often ambiguous. It is a ‘social construct’ which one CANNOT identify in/out of. But biological sex, is binary, rarely ambiguous, empirical, consequential, life giving and life taking. But it's apparently also a social construct that you CAN identify in/out of. I’d say make it make sense but I don't think that's possible! That’s woke logic for you!
I think it's time we shelve the woke nonsense and come back to reality! Liberals need to go back to the drawing board and rethink their ideology. We were SO close to achieving racial and sexual equality and it feels like progressives just came in and pushed us back decades if not a century. But it's not too late. The tide can turn, we can go back to normal. We can go back to reality. We just need to push back, refuse to comply with fantasy and vote accordingly in November!
I can assure you, Harlyn, that I'll drag my aching decrepit body out of bed on election day to take your advice about electing people who don't like to make up thousands of new words when our ancestors gave us such a rich potpourri of words from which to fashion whatever we wish.
You have my admiration for sharing with us your skillful use of our hodgepodge of a language, which allows me to use yet another phrase; "olla podrida."
I look forward to enjoying your next missive.