>There is no scientific basis for
>race and it merely a
>social construct, but I still
>believe that Race and Ethnicity
>are useful descriptive catergories. Less
>say race has too Components,
>
>
>1. How you perceive yourself.
>
>2. How others peceive you.
>

That changes the meaning of "race" completely. You might want to choose a different word for that, becuase "race" already means something else. Like if I invent a beverage, I ain't gonna call it "rum" cuz that's already another thing. "Race" means the same thing as "breed" in dogs or "subspecies". It's a classification of genetic (not cultural) differences intrinsic to different people.

You agree that race has no scientific backing... it's a scientific word. Therefore it has no use as a word in our language or every day lives.

The definition you give suits the word "ethnicity" pretty well and "race" not at all.

>
>If you perceive yourself as Black,
>and others perceive you as
>Black, then its probably safe
>to say your Black.
>

Black is a color. It has become an ethnicity, because of it's use as the name for a race and the history that followed because of that, but (since we're all agreeing that "race" doesn't exist) black is not a race. It's confusing though, because in the US, when someone says "black", it's assumed to mean "African American", but black is a color. "Black" is used to describe people all over the world, with many different cultures.

>The problem occurs when people don't
>meet this criteria of Race.
> and as the world
>gets more "intermingled" people ar
>going to meet this criteria
>less and less.
>

Well, I thought we already determined that race doesn't exist. How then, can anyone meet the criteria of race? And if you saw the part above about "everyone is mixed", then you'd recognize that intermingling has always been. That's exactly the reason why race does not exist. In another 2000 years there will be whole new "races" of people, it's happened already... we got a race called Latino which is characterized by too things:

1. being "mixed"
and
2. speaking Spanish


>But for now if you were
>going to pick me up
>from the airport and you'd
>never seen me before.
>I'm going to be sure
>to mention that i'm Black,
>because I gaurantee you'll find
>that bit of info useful.
> And if I
>am going out to a
>club, I'm going to ask
>"is it a black club?
>Do they play Black Music"
> becuase its still useful
>to know.
>

To tell me you're black does tell me what color you are, and yes that would be useful for someone to know if they were picking u up at the airport. But it tells me nothing about who you are, unless I assume that "black" implies African American. I guess you're trying to say color + culture = race. But the difference is that color and culture exist. Race does not. Man i should just shut the eff up and tell you to read some KoalaLove posts. He does this much better than i do.

>
> I guess though when I
>bring up "Black Music" I'm
>preparing to start up a
>whole nother discussion.
>

been done.