Dreads and Ethnicity

i read this last night. there is so much i want to say about this, but i am afraid it will come out in a tangled mess...but here goes.

i thought thisblogger spoke his mind, he was not hateful....only baffled. okay so he doesn't understand that lots of us white folk fight our hair everyday to keep it from dreading...he doesn't know they come natural too, and doesn't see his hypocracy. okay. his points may be mute, but the underlying feelings are not. they are very real and are born anger and....i can't even pretend to know. tension DOES exist, and until we can live comfortably with the tension it will not, can not be healed. until we can stand in the fire storm of that anger, and just allow it to be expressed there can not be growth.

there is a gentleman on here (sorry i forgot your i.d.) who spoke of dreads forming on the slave ships....that is wrenching to me...can we stand in that for a moment? and then can we allow someone tohave strong feelings that they may not be able to express well, or even be fully aware of why he feels how he feels when he sees a wpwd(white people with dreads)? can we who so deeply desire acceptance give the same?

maybe i am overly sensitive and allow room for negativity, or maybe this listening is an important step to healing the huge wound in our country in particular and our world in general.

Biologically race does not apply to humans it is purely a social term that is misunderstood. We humans have to many variation in our ancestry to categorize ourselves into 'races'. People who use the term to justify certain things ( like having dreads) do not understand the origins of the term. It was first used to justify slavery and put certain groups of people below others and not give these groups equal rights because they were not considered to be 'totally' human more animal. So the concept of race was used to justify inequality and there is nothing biological about race when it comes to humans. This is why I find it ironic when some one that is of African decent uses this kind of reasoning (the one in the blog you posted).

You shouldn't let it bother you, theres a lot of prejudice in the world and that's what that article was. i'm egyptian and i know that the ancient egyptians styled their hair like dreads or had dread-like wigs so it's not like I am stealing anyones culture! besides! cultures are really interesting things and humans should embrace one anothers cultures and we shouldnt use it as a basis to seperate us thats my thought :P

Absolutely, just look at me lol! But the point is that you can not CLEARLY establish 'race' because of all the factors (natural selection gene flow genetic drift and so on) that influence biological and genetic differences. Just look at your 'race' ( a genetic study in the 50's concluded that 30% of the traits in African Americans came from European mating, I would love to see a modern study) and my 'race' what are they? I don't know your ancestry but mine is English Scottish Norse French Irish Native American, so how do I 'classify' myself? Race is not scientific. Biodiversity is and that is what the human species has, biodiversity not race.

DeMarco Ryans said:

I'll accept your point to a certain degree, that the concept of races derived from a social justification. However there are some very clear cut genetic and biological differences amongst the sub groups of the human race.




Jdwood said:

Biologically race does not apply to humans it is purely a social term that is misunderstood. We humans have to many variation in our ancestry to categorize ourselves into 'races'. People who use the term to justify certain things ( like having dreads) do not understand the origins of the term. It was first used to justify slavery and put certain groups of people below others and not give these groups equal rights because they were not considered to be 'totally' human more animal. So the concept of race was used to justify inequality and there is nothing biological about race when it comes to humans. This is why I find it ironic when some one that is of African decent uses this kind of reasoning (the one in the blog you posted).

I would go off what your parents were, and to a muchlesser extent, what your grandparents were to"determine" your "race". Just causeover acentury ago i supposedlyhad a seminole indian grandmammy doesnt mean im indian, given how far up the genetic bloodstream that was. My dad was african american, andmy mother french, so i am a mullatoe if youwant a technical term.

And genetic differences do exist amongst certain races. Scientists used to wonder for years why african americans seem tojump higher, run faster, and sing louder. Yet also why african american males have a prooven shorter lifespan then the average caucasion male.Plus the obviousquestion as to why races can tend to have such different andunique hair structure and what evolved that, so there are differences. But thats not a bad thing.It's all interesting food for thought, but at the end of the day... we are all pink on the side.

Jdwood said:

Absolutely, just look at me lol! But the point is that you can not CLEARLY establish 'race' because of all the factors (natural selection gene flow genetic drift and so on) that influence biological and genetic differences. Just look at your 'race' ( a genetic study in the 50's concluded that 30% of the traits in African Americans came from European mating, I would love to see a modern study) and my 'race' what are they? I don't know your ancestry but mine is English Scottish Norse French Irish Native American, so how do I 'classify' myself? Race is not scientific. Biodiversity is and that is what the human species has, biodiversity not race.

DeMarco Ryans said:

I'll accept your point to a certain degree, that the concept of races derived from a social justification. However there are some very clear cut genetic and biological differences amongst the sub groups of the human race.




Jdwood said:

Biologically race does not apply to humans it is purely a social term that is misunderstood. We humans have to many variation in our ancestry to categorize ourselves into 'races'. People who use the term to justify certain things ( like having dreads) do not understand the origins of the term. It was first used to justify slavery and put certain groups of people below others and not give these groups equal rights because they were not considered to be 'totally' human more animal. So the concept of race was used to justify inequality and there is nothing biological about race when it comes to humans. This is why I find it ironic when some one that is of African decent uses this kind of reasoning (the one in the blog you posted).

Except for us smokers..we're black on the inside lol

updated by @thundersquall: 07/23/15 08:25:33AM

okay I see that I ambeingmisunderstood. I am not saying that there are no differences I'm saying the exactoppositethere are to many differences to classify humans into races. One majorcharacteristic ofour species is exactly that biodiversity ( variation in the specie). Once again race is not a scientific concept it's a social one from the 1700's.

Thundersquall said:

I would go off what your parents were, and to a muchlesser extent, what your grandparents were to"determine" your "race". Just causeover acentury ago i supposedlyhad a seminole indian grandmammy doesnt mean im indian, given how far up the genetic bloodstream that was. My dad was african american, andmy mother french, so i am a mullatoe if youwant a technical term.

And genetic differences do exist amongst certain races. Scientists used to wonder for years why african americans seem tojump higher, run faster, and sing louder. Yet also why african american males have a prooven shorter lifespan then the average caucasion male.Plus the obviousquestion as to why races can tend to have such different andunique hair structure and what evolved that, so there are differences. But thats not a bad thing.It's all interesting food for thought, but at the end of the day... we are all pink on the side.

Jdwood said:

Absolutely, just look at me lol! But the point is that you can not CLEARLY establish 'race' because of all the factors (natural selection gene flow genetic drift and so on) that influence biological and genetic differences. Just look at your 'race' ( a genetic study in the 50's concluded that 30% of the traits in African Americans came from European mating, I would love to see a modern study) and my 'race' what are they? I don't know your ancestry but mine is English Scottish Norse French Irish Native American , so how do I 'classify' myself? Race is not scientific. Biodiversity is and that is what the human species has, biodiversity not race.

DeMarco Ryans said:

I'll accept your point to a certain degree, that the concept of races derived from a social justification. However there are some very clear cut genetic and biological differences amongst the sub groups of the human race.




Jdwood said:

Biologically race does not apply to humans it is purely a social term that is misunderstood. We humans have to many variation in our ancestry to categorize ourselves into 'races'. People who use the term to justify certain things ( like having dreads) do not understand the origins of the term. It was first used to justify slavery and put certain groups of people below others and not give these groups equal rights because they were not considered to be 'totally' human more animal. So the concept of race was used to justify inequality and there is nothing biological about race when it comes to humans. This is why I find it ironic when some one that is of African decent uses this kind of reasoning (the one in the blog you posted).