transward (imported) wrote: Fri May 03, 2013 3:36 am A couple of points. Has anyone taken the test and indicated that they were black on the ethnicity question. I would be very interested in whether they were shown the same sketches as those who specified white. Also in this sort of survey, what they are actually surveying is not always exactly what the imply it is. If ethnicity was a primary thing they were studying there would have been more sharply defined racial types. Would suspect they are more interested in body types and fat phobia than actually what we are attracted to racially.

Transward

I reject the commonplace notion of there being more than one "human race." I have never observed, or heard of, anyone who is actually "white" or actually "black."

Of course, words can have more than one meaning. There is a range from light-complected (people who can produce reasonable amounts of vitamin D from sunlight in far-from-the-equator regions) and dark-complected (people who resist skin cancer while living close to the equator), all of whom I deem to be, however diversely, "colored." "Black," to me, is the absence of light, and, therefore, the absence of color; "White," to me, is the presence of all light, and , therefore, the presence of all color. No person I have ever met or heard of is either totally without color or is of every color in perfect parity. What masquerades, often with socially disastrous results, as "race" is merely cultural diversity.

I found many of the questions to be plagued with biologically false, yet sometimes culturally prized, dichotomies. Perhaps I can re-state that: I strongly agree with daifu-orchid's post.

What is my "race"?

Not the Green Bay Marathon.

Not the Door County Half Marathon.

My "race" is a collaborative race, not a competitive race; the scientifically-grounded race to solve the enigma of human destructive violence, including child abuse and terrorism as aspects of a single evolutionary (or evilutionary?) biology phenomenon worthy of becoming a practicably and pragmatically solved sociobiological problem.

People who, in the social, but not biological, sense are deemed to be "black" and who accept that label as appropriate (including some of my closest relatives) deem my dad's biological mom (who died when my dad was two), from a high-quality photograph of her, to be "black."

I am reminded of Walter White, who was the president of the NAACP, who identified as being Negro (based on cultural norms and ancestry) while readily passing for white. My solution to race questions is to ask which race (the quarter mile, a century, or whatever). A century? One hundred miles in one day on a bicycle?

I thought that the gender categories were too restrictive. I wanted to go back and change my answer on gender but its not allowed. Also I'm not aerated to drawings of people so much as I am to actual people.

Yes, really nice of someone to try with a survey. Really. They are not easy. Been there. Done it.

<rant>

"Milktoast?" Maybe, but you are kinder than deserved. This academic clearly did not take the trouble to become familiar with the subject matter, or the questions and pictures would not be as they are.

One of my favorite professors warned of the 5 Ps of a questionnaire. (Prior Preparation Prevents a Piss-Poor Performance.) Be that as it may, respect for your subjects should always be a foundation. I saw scant evidence of it here.

</rant>

Even so, it is good to be included. I hope we were able to help.

Maybe the Required Reading should include EA. There is so much good here -even if the very occasional "meadow-muffin"!