Hypodescent

Discussion in 'Science & Society' started by S.A.M., May 24, 2008.

  1. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Hmm whats the sign of a non-African descent? Is it an absence of ANY sign of African descent?

    Are Boris Beckers kids black or white?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. invert_nexus Ze do caixao Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,686
    It shouldn't be that strange to you since class in India is determined the same way.

    Although, I don't think that the definitions are properly given. It's not about being 'socially subordinate'. Are Mexicans socially subordinate to blacks? It's more about choice than formula. Also appearances.

    Obama is black because he looks black.

    Mariah Carey is white (despite her attempts to claim being black) because she looks white.

    Etc.

    Looks like two white kids and a black kid.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    So you think if a white Indian marries a dark Indian, the child is identified by the darker Indian ?

    Looking at the features of the children, it would appear to be entirely about color. So, are Indians black?
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. invert_nexus Ze do caixao Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,686
    I'm talking about class. Not race.
    Not sure how race is determined in India. But, I do know that you only go down in class, not up.
    Right?

    More black than white. (Depending on the Indian, of course.)
    But, there are more than two races in the world.
     
  8. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Nope, not really. Shivaji was born into a low caste (Maratha, unskilled), for example, but was crowned king, making him move up into the Kshatriya (warrior) caste.


    Hmm so it would depend on the color of the Indian then? I find its easy to confuse betweeen Arabs, Indians and Hispanics, which is I suppose an indication that even mixed races start looking similar.
     
  9. invert_nexus Ze do caixao Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,686
    What about the lowest caste? Can you ever get out?

    Color and other racial characteristics.
    For instance, I'm sure some people would call that blonde boy black because he has black facial features, but I'm not really so discriminating.
     
  10. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    The unskilled caste is the lowest caste.


    What about a "black" boy with green eyes and "white" features?
     
  11. invert_nexus Ze do caixao Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,686
    I thought it was the 'untouchable' class or some such? Like they're so dirty that even touching them makes you filthy like they are.

    Hard to say.
    Not white, that's for sure.
     
  12. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Only some religious Brahmins have these notions of purity. Not all castes consider the unskilled castes as untouchable.

    Thats hypodescent.
     
  13. Enmos Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    43,184
    Is a Negroid person with a white skin due to a gene mutation black or white ?
    I think it's pretty straight forward, black people are called black because of the color of their skin.
    But people do mean to refer to their ethnicity. Skin color is just an easy label.
     
  14. invert_nexus Ze do caixao Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,686
    No. I'm talking about appearance you're talking about social inferiority amongst the races.
    Completely different.
     
  15. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    I'm talking about the differences in perception between a white boy with black features and a black boy with white features.
     
  16. Enmos Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    43,184
    Both examples are neither, or both.. depends on how you look at it.
     
  17. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Thats an interesting question. Is an albino African black or white?

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  18. Enmos Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    43,184
    Unless you are solely referring to skin color, he is black. He's still part of the same ethnic group.
     
  19. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Like Obama?
     
  20. Enmos Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    43,184
    Why do you ask ?
     
  21. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    25,817
    The first guy would probably be considered Hispanic and the second guys Native American

     
  22. Roman Banned Banned

    Messages:
    11,560
    sam-
    If I cross a donkey and a horse, is the offspring a horse or a donkey?

    [edit]
    I'll try to make these easier to understand.
    If you have a suite of qualities that must be met in order to define something as "white" or "black", and those qualities are both sufficient and necessary conditions for said definition, then lack of those qualities would mean that the something was neither white nor black.

    If you mix white paint with black paint, do you get a white mix or a black mix?
     
  23. iceaura Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    30,994
    If the horse was the female, it's a mule.

    There was once, in the US, a set of similar names for white/black crosses - mulatto, octaroon, etc - - based on the assumption that blacks and whites were different species. As that delusion fades, those names fade. It's been a mere forty years since the legal restrictions based on such definitions were struck - most of the wealthy and powerful people in the US were raised under them - and already we're down to a confused and incoherent "white/black/brown/red/yellow" muddle that does in fact follow SAM's "hypodescent" pattern keyed almost entirely on skin color.

    Obama and Tiger Woods being famous and easily verified examples - the people in West Virginia voted against Obama because he is, in the US, "black".

    AFAIK the only way to teach a computer to recognize the races in the US is by neural net training on thousands of images classified by culturally native US people. And even then it isn't reliable.

    I had a girlfriend once who changed race seasonally - she was black in the summer and fall, white in the winter and spring.
     

Share This Page