thechocolatedandymassacre:

lightxiii:

My sister told me something really interesting she learned at school. Race actually doesn’t exist. It’s simply a human-made perception. Think about it like this: do humans come in different species? No. Just because one person is Japanese and the other is American, that doesn’t mean they’re both different types of humans. We’re all human. Nothing divides us. Just keep that in mind.

I wish people would stop saying this.

I get what you’re trying to say, and I’m sure it comes from a sincere place, but statements like this are incredibly dismissive.

I’ll explain why. 

Just because race isn’t a biological reality, that doesn’t invalidate the fact that race is a social reality. 

Positions like this, “There’s no such thing as race, we’re all just people,” is an incredibly privileged statement to make. And it almost exclusively comes from White People. 

And this is because White People aren’t used to having their lives defined by their race. As the default “human” their used to being referred to as a “person” not a “Black person” or an “Asian person”. They never have to deal with having an addendum attached to their humanity. 

People of Color are never just “people”. We’re never defined by our common humanity, it’s always about our otherness, our non-Whiteness. 

So we don’t have the luxury of saying that “we’re just people” because we never are just “people”. 

And it’s not just that we don’t have the luxury of being referred to as simply “people” it’s also that our identities are hard fought. 

Do you know how much effort, unlearning, and relearning it takes before one says that they’re proud to be Black? For some people it takes a whole lifetime and for other’s not even that. 

We had to teach ourselves pride because we needed it in order to survive. So to try and say to a person who has put so much effort in taking pride in an identity that was forced upon them, that their identity doesn’t matter. It’s incredibly disrespectful.  

So yes, biologically speaking, we’re all just humans. 

But there is faaaar more to life than biology. 

I’m sure you meant well when you thought this, but….yeah….It’s not the most conscious statement in the world. 

That statement would work in an ideal world

but not this one

in this world, white people are people and everyone else is treated like the other

(via mochafleur)