> Otherwise it's difficult to explain why a seemingly race-blind society keeps discussing race all the time, and dedicates so much effort into preserving information about who is what race.
I think a core problem there is that people fail to realize that emphasizing and celebrating the own ethnicity/gender/sexuality/religion opens the door for discrimination along those lines.
Demonstrating "pride" to belong to some group is never consequence-free, and often a really bad trade-off overall.
I basically agree. There should be no pride or shame in things you can't take neither credit or blame for. I also don't buy the common argument that taking pride in something is necessary to counterweight the shame associated with it in the past.
But I also think there are positive ways of celebrating your culture.
> But I also think there are positive ways of celebrating your culture.
I think you're right, I was being too prohibitive.
When people start to reduce their own identity (and their judgement of others) to just one dimension is where the actually dangerous territory starts, but it is a very easy position to end up in sadly (even right after being on the receiving end).
I think a core problem there is that people fail to realize that emphasizing and celebrating the own ethnicity/gender/sexuality/religion opens the door for discrimination along those lines.
Demonstrating "pride" to belong to some group is never consequence-free, and often a really bad trade-off overall.