South African government: Chinese people now "officially black"

[zuludelta]

For some reason, I found this news story hilarious:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7461099.stm

[Figure Fan]

o.0

..I have no words..

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Hmm.  Perhaps, now, C4's "Reformed" will need to be, erm, reformed...

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Fop o' th' Morning

[BlueBard]

What a dumb ruling.

My being white has nothing to do with why I think it's dumb.

First of all, there's nothing really to be gained by ignoring reality.  You're either of African descent, or you're not.  Skin color makes no difference to a person's intelligence, dignity or humanity, but there are cosmetic and genetic differences that are simply facts to be recognized.

Medically-speaking, for example, it would make no sense for a doctor to exclude ethnicity when making a diagnosis, any more than it would make sense for the same doctor to ignore gender.

Second, it sets a dangerous precedent for judicial legislation... something that causes trouble in this country and everywhere it happens.  Separation of powers is really a necessary thing.

Third, it would have made more sense in every conceivable way to make it a legislative change that included the people who needed to be included.

Fourth, it really just legitimizes discrimination rather than discouraging it.

[zuludelta]

Fourth, it really just legitimizes discrimination rather than discouraging it.

At the risk of skewing political what I meant to be a humourous thread, I'll just say that I'm sure the intent was not to legitimize discrimination... the ANC's stand with regards to ethnic classification have all been geared towards redressing the injustices of apartheid.

The way they enforce that stand with their policies is another thing entirely, however, and that's where we get something funny and absurd like the article I mentioned.   

[BlueBard]

At the risk of skewing political what I meant to be a humourous thread, I'll just say that I'm sure the intent was not to legitimize discrimination... the ANC's stand with regards to ethnic classification have all been geared towards redressing the injustices of apartheid.

Granted, and understandable.

The way they enforce that stand with their policies is another thing entirely, however, and that's where we get something funny and absurd like the article I mentioned.   

No argument here :D

[AncientSpirit]

I like the idea of walking into my local black restaurant and getting wonton soup.   :D

[Uncle Yuan]

I like the idea of walking into my local black restaurant and getting wonton soup.   :D

But good luck finding a Chinese restaurant!

[lugaru]

I could see this being a tool of social change if they mixed up the race thing every day.

"Ok... today blacks are Chinese, Chinese are whites and whites are ahm... Aborigenee".

I'm sure that the confused citizens would eventually say "this race thing is impossible to keep track of and really not that important".

Next step would be the rest of the world.

[AncientSpirit]

I could see this being a tool of social change if they mixed up the race thing every day.

"Ok... today blacks are Chinese, Chinese are whites and whites are ahm... Aborigenee".

I'm sure that the confused citizens would eventually say "this race thing is impossible to keep track of and really not that important".

Next step would be the rest of the world.

Easily done.   I now pronounce Earthlings to be ... Martians.   

[BlueBard]

But where's the Ka-Boom?  There's supposed to be an earth-shattering Ka-Boom?

[Panther_Gunn]

It's all Spud's fault.  I saw him running away with the illudium pu-36 explosive space modulator. 

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

It's all Spud's fault.  I saw him running away with the illudium pu-36 explosive space modulator. 

So that's where that thing went!  I've been wondering where I put it.

[Panther_Gunn]

Word on the street says he sold it to ND.  Something to do with milk duds.....  :huh:

[Mr. Hamrick]

so much for the cookies and jelly beans I offered him

[JeyNyce]

Back to the subject, I thought it was funny.  Can you imagine all the sex jokes with this?  The "urban/ Ghetto" jokes.  I know Chris Rock is writing up jokes galore with this one.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

This kind of craziness happens when you try to make like there are different races and try to control or regulate that in some way.

Let me say what I believe.  There are no such things as races.  Races are simply coincidental ways in which certain genetic traits tend to turn up in extended family groups.  It's like the difference between blond and brunette, but with more differences.  Even in seemingly "pure" ancestry, traits that should belong to other groups shows up.  We're all really just the same, with the same ancestors, but people tend to forget that.

[Sevenforce]

This may be a bit wordy. Sorry

It doesn't matter what a person is born, it is what that person will grow up to become!

For The Win

On the flip side:

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.

-_-

I have always felt that a person should be taken at face value, and it doesn't matter what race, skin color, gender, species, relationship/sexual preference, age, language - whatever they are. It shouldn't matter, they still exist, and still deserve - nay, have a RIGHT - to be treated as YOU, yourself, would be treated.

Unfortunately, this view that I like to believe every being has has become tainted as more and more of humanity has been brought to light to me, more of our psychology, how we tick. We find it hard to deal with change, fight it at every oppurtunity, but what compounds this and makes it even worse is that we, as a necessity, have to categorize things. And if something doesn't match that category, we run a "Do Not Compute" or, as it is with children, we create a brand new category.

At a basic level, we cannot comprehend the complexity of storing all the information about all persons, when we meet someone we base our reaction to something they do/say according to a category that we place them in based on characteristics that we have from someone we have already met or something we already think we know. Otherwise we'd overload from trying to keep every little detail correct. This also helps to communicate to someone else a description of something. When I say something is blue, its not specific enough, you think of the category of blue, a blue color that, to you, is your minds eye of blue. But if I say something is Cobalt Blue, the category you have for blue is focused and the color instantly comes to mind. And remember - this is just a color. Add in things such as size, weight, etc. and we start going nuts dealing with specificities and keeping this all down in our heads.

Um. I'm suffering from a cold, so I'm not entirely sure that I'm totally on topic, or even kept in the lines of the whole thing I've written here, so I'll finish and get some paracetamol, and hope I haven't annoyed anyone. We all have prejudices, they're just not all bad. That doesn't mean its a good thing, but I'd hardly equate "All things with claws are mean and nasty" with "All Chinese people are communists"