I was at the panel discussion.

[boomchick]

Hi there! I was at the panel discussion. It was a TRIP! Do you think that lady with the baby was planted in the audience? What did you think about her? That one dude from Juxtaposition called her fake and then at the end was talking about how its all about how we treat eachother.

I'm still processing it all so much. I'd love to hear your viewpoint.

[dot2]

I'm that dude from Juxtaposition. I said what the chick SAID was fake. I didn't say SHE was fake. It was what she said that was real fake and Super Minnesotan!
Word.

[Sam Spiczka]

What did she say?

[oliverwang]

Originally Posted by dot2

I'm that dude from Juxtaposition. I said what the chick SAID was fake. I didn't say SHE was fake. It was what she said that was real fake and Super Minnesotan!
Word.

...I think the term used was, "hella Minnestoan" and I had to stifle a laugh when you said that. I don't even know what the term means but I have a good suspicion, just based on tone and context.

To answer the other poster's question, she was basically saying that race will be a non-issue once enough time goes by and that we live in a society where identity is really to be determined from within rather than from the outside. It's a very liberal humanist position and one that the panel basically dismissed out of hand (as they should have).

[Sam Spiczka]

Actually, both views are to be dismissed out of hand. Identity is determined neither by race nor by what's within, it is determined by an individual's actions alone. No other standard is worthy of a civilized society.

[ann klefstad]

I think what's happening in the discussion is that people aren't being quite clear enough about what they're talking about. Like, "race" is not a biological fact, but it is a cultural fact--but because it's cultural, not "bred inthe bone" in any meaningful way, it's not absolute as a determinant of who or what someone is essentially. If you look black or white, though, it will be a fairly absolute determinant of how other people treat you, the assumptions you'll operate within. And that tends to construct character.

That is, who you are is a product of what's in you and what you do in response to that, and what assumptions others make about you and how they treat you and what you do in response to that.

So finally, Sam, you're right, your own actions constitute your nature, but those actions are formed by inner and outer forces. "Race" is now known to not constitute the inner or essential nature in any real way; it does , though, have large effects on people because of the assumptions we all make about the cultural content of the categories "black" and "white".

Public discussions often drive me crazy because they're conducted so sloppily that everyone's speaking at cross - purposes. No one defines terms; everyone's assumptions and definitions are different, and winning is often what seems to matter, rather than clarity. I do hope that discussion wasn't that way.

AK