mookiemcgee wrote:I live in California, and have alot of Mexican friends. Some have been here 3 generations, some were born here, some born in Mexico. Virtually all of them, refer to themselves as 'Brown'. They might also use latino, but I find many of my mexican friends don't use latino because they think of themselves as Mexican(or Mexican american) and don't like being grouped with other central or southern american folks. Somehow the term brown seems more acceptable and inclusive to them. While I don't know if the term 'brown' has been officially sanctioned as good or bad by the SJW Supreme court, i would posit that in discussing what color folks appear to be you might say Egyptians are largely 'brown'. Not quite 'see-through' white (like a Irishman), not quite black like much of Africa. In discussing their heritage I'd probably use the term Egyptian. It kinda saves you the trouble of fighting over were they white 3000 years ago or black (they were almost certainly brown back then too). IMO They are brown because they represent the physical juxtaposition on the globe of white-er or black-er people likely crossbreeding over the course of 100,000 years. What i mean to say is, if there is debate over what color they are (in a purely eyesight sense), they look brown to me!
Race has no real definition. It is purely an arbitrary set of ideas put forward at various times by various groups.
One big bit of misinformation, though, is this idea that its a manufacture of white Europeans. It is true that in modern times, in the "west" -- aka "US, Canada and Europe", a definition basically putting whites in one group, and more or less referring to everyone else as "other" -- black, white, yellow/Asian and red/ native american -- and now "latino" or "brown, along with "pacific Islander" (both originally missing, which says a lot) has been predominate. Its dominance/prevalence around the world is tied to prevalence and dominance of "western" culture as a whole, BUT that in no way means that other definitions don't exist, are not popular or have not existed.
If you want to get into real and existing modern racism, look no further than Japan or China! Although "westerners" often classify them "together", they consider themselves not just distinct from each other, but with many distinct subgroups. They each look down very severely on other ethnic Asians -- the enslavement of Koreans in Japan, just as an example, is well documented, but there are many, many other such examples.
Similarly, in Africa, though we tend to refer to the "African", A Zulu and Sub saharan are quite different (and note most US slaves came from Eastern Africa, after having being conquered by not whites, but other black nations).
The REAL truth is that this whole thread is yet another example of attempts to pretend knowledge and put forward "awareness" by someone who does not seem to be really well versed in the subject to begin. (and note.. I am no expert on this, either, but I seem to know more than many posting here so far).