I noticed that in the USA people are often strongly divided based on whether they identify as being “black” or “white”. Basically many people there make this a big part about their identity and separate communities based on it to the point where they developed different cultures and even different ways of talking and behavior solely based on whether they identify as “black” or “white”.
As far as I understand it’s based on the brightness of their skin color because of slavery but it’s not quite clear to me who is considered “black” or “white” since I’ve seen many people who for example have very bright skin and seem to have almost no African ethnicity but they still identify and talk/behave as “being black”.
I wonder why they still have this culture and separation since segregation ended in 1964.
Because in other regions like South America such as Brazil for example this culture doesn’t seem to exist that much and people just identify as people and they talk, behave and connect the exact same way no matter the skin brightness. People such in South America seem way more mixed and seem to not have this type of separation like in the USA based on external features like skin, hair or eye color.
To me it kind of feels like this is a political and economic reason in the US that they purposefully want to divide people for their gains. Because the extent to which this seems to have been normalized in Americas every day conversation both in private and in public/commercial spaces feels like brainwashing. And I wonder if this will ever improve since it seems to go as far as people being proud about these racist stereotypes and think this is completely normal. But considering the broader global context and America’s historical background it doesn’t seem normal. Especially with Americas context of slavery you would expect there to be strong efforts of fighting these stereotypes and having a political leadership that doesn’t see “color” and only judges based on individuals personality.
I did a quick Google search and it seems like there are many South American countries with a bigger Caucasian percentage than the USA. As of the 2022 Census, USA is 60.9% . Uruguay having 90.7%, Argentina 97% and Costa Rica has 82%.
In Europe for example the percentage of people identifying as black is even smaller and they’re an even smaller minority but even they still mostly aren’t separated and are culturally the same.
Argentina is also quite racist.
Caucasian itself is a very US term, in the sense that most of so called caucasians aren’t as white as northern europeans. Indians are caucasians, northern africans are caucasians, caucasians are caucasians, southern europeans, turks. Most of these people are ‘white’ but not ‘US white’.
Yes, and Argentina is a very unusual South American country due to this. Brazil has a national identity that is based on being mixed. Countries like Peru or Bolivia have made their own national identities that are different but still don’t emphasize ethnicity/skin colour as the US does.
I don’t have a precise answer to your post but I’d like to add my two cents - it’s not just USA. I’m born and raised in Argentina and moved to Australia when I was 19. Although there isn’t a black vs white dichotomy here, people are very, very conscious of skin shades. I still don’t get why they obsess over it.
Just to illustrate, my skin/hair color is sort of like Monica Belucci’s. My eyes are green. In Argentina I was considered a brunette, period. Sure, there were lots of people a bit darker than me, and also lots of people more white, but I never felt like anyone cared. You’d only bring the topic when describing someone physically. In Australia? I’ve been referred to as “a person of color” so many times I lost count, and always by Aussies -even aussies who I would consider to be of a similar complexion to mine. Immigrants on the other hand, don’t seem to mind, no matter their own color. People here somehow find ways to make the skin tone and background matter, and I’m amazed at how some conversations end up touching the race topic gratuitously. It’s in their mindset. They can’t help themselves.
Yes I agree it’s really weird. And the fact that some people would see a person as “white” and others see the same person as “black” just shows how absurd this concept is and that there isn’t such a thing as distinct human races (also skin tones can change depending on how much sun exposure someone gets). All that is made up racism to artificially help humans deal with hate, self-worth issues and finding belonging. But the reality is we’re all the same race who naturally look different which should be cherished. The only aspect a human should be judged by is personality.
Honestly all this obsession with ethnicity is making me pretty crazy as growing up I never had a concept of this and just saw people as people but nowadays it’s so strongly forced on you especially by the internet.