Kwame Anthony Appiah on Race

Nineteenth-century intellectuals saw races as biological and political facts. Their twentieth-century successors rejected both propositions-but identities rooted in the reality or fantasy of shared ancestry remain central in politics, both within and between nations. NYU's Kwame Anthony Appiah discusses his recent article "Race in the Modern World" with Foreign Affairs Editor Gideon Rose.

[@LindaCasey]

I've only just discovered this man .. what a wonderful mind!!!

[@alimi-yaoadam7838]

He is from my village in Ghana.

[@sirpipyo4873]

Appiah inspires to think! thanks for sharing

[@nazxa]

I read cosmopolitizm

[@lifeisthefun]

Glib. Race is a social construct? So my eyes deceive me when they distinguish between Caucasian and Black and Asian.

[@disseminate4]

What makes a Ghanian racially distinct from a Kenyan? What makes the Central Plains Chinese a different race than a Sichuanese Chinese person? What makes a Welsh person distinct from a French person? Because that's the paradox he's referencing, not melanin levels. From a western POV yeah there are distinct biological groups (darker skin vs lighter skin), but the point is that if you take race to be a real thing then you can titrate it down such that every single person is a different race, which is true with that mindset and also ridiculous. As such, its a flawed idea.

[@michaelr00ney]

No, your brain deceives you when you glibly generalize from skin color to biological categories.

[@C3yl0]

Pretty much it does. Yes, you see physical features however you are attaching it to memories, ideas, emotion, biases, and conceptions. Therefore, I’m pretty sure that if you see 2 white male you won’t be able to identify if one is either American or Syrian ( there are white, blonde, green eyes males in Syria). However, if one of them tell you that is form Syria, your Brian will automatically associate it with emotions, ideas, values, and so on. Why? Because we experience the world through stories that 95% are unconscious.

[@DeanAdventure]

@@disseminate4 It is you who are mistaken. There is much more to ethnicity than skin color. There are many genetic factors involved. It seems like you are the one that is focused on skin color.

[@perecanamero2574]

@@disseminate4 race is still a factor driving capitalism's greed for dominance as a materialist ideology, I think

[@GoogleAccount-qe1uy]

It takes an impressive level of disingenuousness from Mr Appiah to say that race is a social construct while acknowledging that they do not share the same genes

[@twentyfaces62]

Not at all, you're just stupid