Quote Originally Posted by Alan View Post
Let me try to help you.

You continually make reference to "brown skinned people", "white dominated society", "white anti-racists", "white privilege", etc.

I lament the fact that people see color rather than people and you tell me that "race and color are different to me".

I think I'm the one who is confused.
Thanks, yes, I see how you're confused. And, I believe you & I have the same lamentation, and different approaches to it! Language is important. I so wish we could have this convo in person.

For me, color is how the complex experience of race is shorthanded in our racist society. Skin color is a fact. Brown-skinned describes a presenting feature of my relatives, and THE presenting feature they report feeling judged on by all but their most intimate friends, and even then, there are examples of friends holding assumptions based upon skin color & the racial signifier that it is in present day US. (Gender is next, then age.) Race is a social construct, and both the words 'race' and 'ethnicity' are used to signify the deeper life experiences of people in a society that is racist.

In my experience, "seeing" color & race can also be very positive. When someone "sees" my Egyptian/American niece's brownness & Egyptian features & asks her about her life as a biracial young woman in the US, she feels "seen" in all her complexity. When someone "sees" her brownness & Egyptian features and hurls a slur at her (usually 'go back home' and 'terrorist'), she feels threatened, profiled, often scared, and always furious. Color, race, & ethnicity are facts of a diverse world, and the varying viewpoints & life experiences behind these presenting attributes are valuable for us all. Including the many viewpoints of white folks.