Transcription
Nationality: the status of belonging to a particular nation, whether by birth or naturalization. Let's find out what nation means so we can be clear on exactly what nationality is referring to.
Nation: a large body of people associated with a particular territory. So, it's a particular territory that is sufficiently conscious of its unity, it's aware of its own unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own. So, that is what is considered a nation. So, United States of America, that's a nation. Canada, nation. Mexico, nation. Nigeria, nation. South Africa, that's a nation. All the way over to China, Japan, those are nations according to this definition.
And what we have to understand is that nation, ethnicity, and race sometimes they're used interchangeably and they get muddied definitions. So, I'm going to try to keep it as clear as possible on how I think people really are trying to use the terms when they're saying or are using these words. So, nation is referring to, let's go back to the definition of nationality. So, the status of belonging to a particular nation, which is, we are, we just determined what a nation was. Whether you were born there or you were naturalized there. And when your naturalization is a foreigner coming to another country and becoming a citizen. So, I'm an American. If I leave over and go to, let's say I went over to Mali and I became a citizen there, then that would be my nation at that point. That would be my nationality. Okay.
So, I think this is fairly clear on what is meant by, uh, nationality. This is nationality in its common usage, the way people, most people are trying to define it and trying to use it when they're referring to, to what is someone's nationality.
Now, let's go into ethnicity. Because when you start going into ethnicity, this starts to describe more specifically behaviors of groups, interests of groups, and just how groups interact and, um, and kind of just move throughout a society, what their objectives are. This is when you start getting into that area. So, let's go into this book here. It is called "Race in North America" by Audrey Smedley. Dr. Audrey Smedley, who's a, uh, who was an anthropologist. She passed away a few years ago, but she wrote this with her son. And this is a, a phenomenal book right here. Recommend it for anyone. This is like the go-to guide if you want to understand race and the history of, of race. This is it right here.
So, let's go in here and see what ethnicity is. People who share cultural characteristics such as religion, a common cultural history, a group name and identity, and language traits. See themselves as distinct from other populations, meaning they're different from other groups of people. A modern way of expressing the common interests of people who are perceived by others and themselves as having the same culture is to speak of them as an ethnic group. So, that's an ethnic group. Different culture, different, uh, language in certain instances. It may be a different religion, a different cultural history. There's all types of things that can go into an ethnicity. The way they identify themselves and people see them different from other people, and they see themselves as distinct and different from other people.
So, the example of this would be someone like the Mayan, the Aztecs, the Incas. They became different ethnic groups, different ethnicities. They came over, according to anthropologists, historians, they came over through the Bering Strait as one people at first, or they may have come in waves as groups of people. And then eventually settling down, they begin to develop their own language, identity, group name, religions. And then from there, they become different ethnic groups. We also have people like the Han people of China, the Tibetan people of China. You know, we have the Igbo, the Yoruba, the Hausa of Nigeria. These are all in one nation, as far as the Nigerians that we just named, but they're different ethnic groups. Certain things that are different about them and that they see themselves as different from the other groups of people who are in there. And so, throughout the world, there's, I mean, there's thousands, thousands upon thousands, thousands of ethnicities. In Nigeria alone, there's over 300. So, ethnicities are all around the world. People see themselves differently and they group together in groups with people who they share similarities with and they create ethnic groups.
Now, the ethnic groups, they didn't just fall from the sky, right? So, how did these ethnic groups come about? The answer to that is by free-thinking people who saw other ways of doing things that may have been different from the larger group that they were in. And so, for example, let's say that we have a large group of people. And within that large group of people, you have some people in there that start to see things in a different way. Maybe they see things like it's more beneficial to develop a culture centered around being educated so they could properly prepare their children to be productive in society. Maybe they come to the table and say, you know, it's better for us to choose different types of foods so we can promote health. Maybe it's more beneficial for us to take on different forms of entertainment, music, or whatnot, so we can promote positivity and peace. Or maybe we need to change our name so it can be more fitting to describe exactly who we are.
So, you have a group of people who this sentiment and these ideas come to. They present it to the larger, uh, group. And let's say the larger group doesn't want to have anything to do with that. They say, "No, we're fine the way we are right now. We eat what we eat because this is what we've always done. We want this same form of entertainment because this is how we enjoy being entertained. We keep this name because this is what describes us and this is what we've always known." So, now we have conflict within the group. One wants to change, the other doesn't. One sees a different route, the other doesn't see a different route. They want to stay on going on the same path. Okay, no problem. So, now we have a fundamental issue. And when you have issues that are fundamentally antagonistic towards one another, it, that relationship cannot work out, right? Because can two walk together unless they agree? No, they can't.
So, from there, the group that has this newer idea and new way of seeing things, they start to separate themselves from the former group, thus creating an entirely different identity for themselves. An identity that serves their purpose, the objectives that they have, the aims and goals that they have, whether it be changing a name, changing cultural practices, changing where they live, a, a variety of things that can come into place where someone's creating a different identity. But understand that it's something that people create. That's the important part about it to understand. So, now you have these separate groups who are doing their own thing. And that's how we get thousands upon thousands of ethnic groups. And that's how it's been.
Now, listen to this. It is important to note that members of an ethnic group need not have common physical traits. They don't have to have physical traits that are in common. Why is that important? That means that no matter how someone looks on the outside, if they have interests that align with other groups, they can go in and join that group, right? If the other ethnic group says, "Okay, yeah, sure, you align with our, our standards and values, the way we do things, we can become a people together." So, people can come in and out of groups, in and out of ethnic groups, depending on where their values lie. That maybe things change in their life. Maybe they don't see things differently, or they see things differently and they want to go amongst other groups, right? You can always do that. You can switch religions, you can switch languages, you can go in and become culturally assimilated to other groups, right? That's, that's the beauty of ethnicity. It allows for that flexibility to where you can align yourself with people who are similar to you and hold similar values. Beautiful system, beautiful way of maneuvering through the world, right? I want to go with people who have the inner values that I have. I'm not caring about how big somebody's nose is, how narrow somebody's nose is, how light somebody's skin is, how rich somebody's skin is, how tall, how short. We're not worried about that. We're talking about the inner values. Very important.
So, up until about 500 years ago, this is how the world moved. This was the norm. But what happened afterwards was the introduction of a concept called race.
What is race? Race: a socially constructed category of identification based on physical characteristics. It's socially constructed. What does it mean by socially constructed? That means humans have created this in the mental realm, and other people in society as a whole have bought into the concept. This is regardless of if it's rooted in reality, if it's the actual truth in the reality, the physical world, the flesh and blood world, if it's reality in there or not. This is what social construction is. We've agreed upon it. People have agreed upon it and said, "This is how it is." So, race is a socially constructed category of identification based on physical characteristics.
So, this new world and this new idea, this socially constructed idea that people have agreed upon, and we'll find out why and how, is based upon physical characteristics. Now, remember, we talked about ethnicity, and that was based on inner characteristics. So, if we had a system and a worldview that was based on inner values, and people were able to maneuver, set up societies how they wanted to set up societies to match those inner values, why did that change from inner values to outer appearances? This is the question we have to ask and understand. Who would come and create such a backward concept and introduce that into society from the inner into the outer?
Let's find out. Those Europeans who came to dominate the colonial world of 18th century America created a world. This is also another form of socially constructed. They're creating, manufacturing a world in which the status of whiteness achieved supremacy, in which the status of whiteness achieved supremacy, while inferior or lower status identities were imposed on those populations encountered and exploited in the new world. Also in Asia, and later Africa, and the other people who are outside of this category of white, received the status of being inferior. Uh oh, here we go. It's getting ready to get spicy.
Race conveyed a model of the world as being divided into exclusive groups that were naturally unequal. Naturally unequal. That means you're born into being unequal. Unequal to who? It told you whiteness, which was superiority. It's getting real spicy out here. Let's go. And had to be ranked vis-a-vis one another. And had to be ranked vis-a-vis one another. How did that ranking happen? What are the rankings? Well, we know the rankings. We know that white, white was, um, intended to be superior, all the way down to what is classified as black, that's supposed to be inferior. You're on the bottom of the rung when you accept this worldview.
Now, here's the thing that's crazy. Is I've looked at millions of people throughout my life, millions of people. And the one thing I've yet to come in contact with is somebody with black skin and somebody with white skin. I've looked around. I've seen people with brown skin, and I've seen people with like a maybe a peach-colored skin, or however we want to describe it. But I've never seen anybody with white skin or black skin. So, right there, I had to sit back and say, "Hmm. Now, why would we want to call some people with fair skin, why would they be classified as white? And people with brown skin classified as black?" We got to dig a little bit deeper than this. Let's see if we can crack the code. Uh oh, here we go.
We got Dr. Sheena Michelle Mason, "The Theory of Racelessness." We see what she has to say about these terms, black and white, to see if we can get some understanding. White: described all free people of seemingly visible European descent. Of seemingly visible European descent. Whiteness was coded within laws and policies to represent political, social, and cultural freedom and entitlement to the ideals that would become associated with America. Freedom. Key words here. Freedom, entitlement to those ideas that will become associated with America. Freedom, liberty, pursuit of happiness, all those types of things. This is what white is being attached to.
Now, let's go a little bit further. Let's go into the dictionary. This is the Edam online. And let's see what else is being attached to when we see that the, the dominant colonial powers came to place and attach labels on people. What else are they attaching to these labels? What are they implying by attaching themselves to white when they don't have white skin? Let's see. White: meaning morally pure. Was in Old English, morally pure. Association with royalist causes. Its late 18th century slang sense of honorable. Honorable. Fair is 1877 American English. In Middle English, it meant gracious, gracious, friendly, friendly, favorable, favorable. The racial sense of those races, chiefly European or of European extraction, or of European extractions. That sounds like a magnificent piece of a definition to attach yourself to. Sounds wonderful to me. It's, I don't blame anybody. Sounds marvelous. You should explain yourself like that and look at yourself in those terms. No problem there. Okay, I see that. I, I'm not mad at that. I see why somebody would want to attach themselves to that. Sure.
Now, let's go back into Dr. Sheena Michelle Mason's book and let's see what she has to say about black. Black and negro came to describe people of African descent who were considered by law and practice to be enslaved and chattel slaves and chattel. Okay, hold on. So, the white was free. The black is supposed to be a slave and chattel. Hmm. Something's. You don't have white skin, but you claim, you attach yourself to white. These people don't have black skin, but they attached, were attached to being black. And black means a slave or is supposed to be allocated for people who are to be slaves and chattel. Interesting.
Now, let's see if that lines up with something in the dictionary. Maybe they gave them a, there's dictionary definitions and meanings that give some way out of this. Maybe you got some, um, that black was attached to something better. Maybe it's not meant for just slave and chattel. So, let's see if it's what it says in the, uh, the dictionary. Edam online. Black: the meaning fierce, terrible, wicked. Is from late 14th century. The figurative sense often often comes from the notion of without light, moral or spiritual. Latin niger had many of the same figurative senses. Gloomy, unlucky, bad, wicked, malicious.
Okay, so let me get this straight again. Okay. So, we have white, morally pure. Morally pure, I should say. And it's supposed to be a free person with all the liberties that can be given to someone. Then when we get into black, we see that black is set up to be a slave and chattel property. And it's attached to other meanings related to being wicked and immoral, without light, spiritual or moral, wicked. The game is rigged. I said, they done rigged the game here. You've given, okay, you've given all the hot meanings to uplift, um, certain people called white people. And then the meanings that mean anything derogatory that gets put on people who are classified and labeled as black. Isn't this something here? When we start digging into this thing, isn't this something? This is the, the clash where you run into when you start dealing with this race thing. It's rigged.
Now, when I'm looking at this, what I want to do is I want to see, like, do anybody else have a say so in this? Because in my mind, I'm thinking, who in the world would stick themselves to this label of being black? Who would call themselves that, like willingly? Did they stand at the waiting line saying, "Yes, we shall be called black, which means wicked, immoral, malicious, ious, fierce, and terrible"? But yes, you get to be called white, morally pure, honorable, friendly. You don't have white skin. I don't have black skin. But we'll take those titles. Is that the way it happened?
Let's see. The peoples of the conquered areas of the new world and the other colored peoples of what is now called the third world did not participate in the invention of race or in the compilation of racial classifications imposed upon them and others. So, we see nobody else participated in sitting at the round table and saying, "Yes, sign us up for this. We'll take the spot of being black, the wicked, the malicious, even though we have brown skin. And sure, you can take the spot of being white, even though you don't have white, but you can white-skinn, but you can be known as morally pure. Sure, we'll sign up for that." See, nobody else did that. Nobody else did that. We're on to you, baby. We're on to you. Yes, we are. We're on to you.
Let's get some more. To the extent that these peoples utilize the idiom today and operate within its structures, they have inherited. They have inherited. Who's the people that have inherited this? All the people walking around calling themselves black. All the people that have, were walking around calling themselves white. Both have inherited it. Both people have, right? Both people have inherited this worldview. They've inherited it. They've, the great, great, great, great grandparents, they have passed that ideology on to, on both sides, right? Because it was forced and imposed on people. And then they begin to pass it on to their children. And people haven't got a chance to, they, up to this point, many people haven't got a chance to really dig down deep into this thing to remove themselves out of there. So, they're stuck in that racial worldview. Where if you're a black person, you get put on the bottom automatically. If you're aligning yourself with being black, you're on the bottom, inferior, chattel, slave property. That's what the intention of that was. Why black was created. That's why a black person was created to be that, right? So, we have to understand this.
So, they have inherited this. But what else is important? Not only they inherit it. Watch what it says. They have inherited and acquiesced in the system of racial divisions. Acquiesced in the system of racial division. That means you've accepted it. The world that has been pulled over your eyes, you have accepted it. You've accepted it because it's been inherited. It was inherited because it was forced. Forced on people who didn't say that they wanted to be that. Have inherited. You have, most people haven't taken the chance to, to even go through and do the research and study it. But most people who haven't done that have the loudest opinion on it, but haven't got the faintest amount of information on it. Hot stuff, man. Make you think, right? Make you sit there and think.
Let's find out what else is there. They have inherited and acquiesced in the system of racial divisions created for them by the dominant Europeans. Anyway, it was created by the dominant Europeans. That's who created it. And it's not the, all the Europeans as a whole. We're talking about colonists, the people who came through colonizing. That wasn't the vast majority of Europeans. There's a certain select group of people with power coming through and forcing will on people, setting up a system. And what you'll find out is extracting, using both people. This is what you come to find out as we get into other topics. They use both people with the race game to extract profits to where you got the average everyday people who are labeled black and white fighting against each other, while the other people who set the system up, they're on the outside watching two people fight each other over foolishness. "You're black, you're white," and all this other stuff. And you can never come together with those because they're polar opposites. It's white and black. This is why the system works so well. And everyone else is just falling in between. They're kind of like in this system, you're almost like bystanders, just watching while the two people on polarized opposites fighting against each other, bickering. Whereas some of those people, many of those people, if it were in the ethnic identity, would have mingled with each other, and the physical part would have been of of no significance. But the inner part would have been of the most valuable. And that's what makes it the, the racial worldview so disastrous because people who would ordinarily get together, they have these rigid barriers, these labels that keep attaching to them and making a division where it wouldn't necessarily be. But the European colonists, they came and they did their thing, and they set up a world system for other people to see the world through for their benefit. And that's what you'll find out when you go into the racial studies. And you have people now today who still benefit off of that worldview. A lot of people, more people than what people think, right?
So, this is nationality, ethnicity, and race. Three different areas on how to identify. I don't identify with any of the race. There's no race. I don't have a race. I'll deal with a nationality and an ethnicity. A race? I'm not checking any of the boxes. I'll cross the whole thing out and say, "Go somewhere else with that." I'm not falling for that trap. I don't have a race at all. Nationality, ethnicity, we can get along on these terms. But when you start introducing that race, not for me.