Is it important to have race based communities?

[lightbulb27]

Do you think it's important and beneficial to have professional associations based upon race, sex, religion, or other attributes?

Examples:

National Society of Black Physicists:

https://nsbp.org/

Here's one for Chinese Physicists

https://ocpaweb.org/home

National Association of Women Judges

https://www.nawj.org/

National association of women with that wear skirts

It's beneficial

It's not beneficial

It's really not ok to self limit

[DJB72]

Not only is it not beneficial, it's the very thing Martin Luther King dreamed would end.

Physics isn't different depending on the melanin level in the skin. Gravity is a universal law.

The Roman Empire had a lot of problems, but racial issues weren't one of them. White Romans had black slaves, black Romans had white slaves. It just depended where they captured them. Angles were brought back from Britannia to Rome as slaves at the same time Ethiopians were brought from campaigns in Africa.

Race as we know it is a product of the last 300 years.

[lightbulb27]

Makes sense. Is it possible people communicate and relate better... openly, more at ease, with clarity within culture or language?

[DJB72]

I'm English. I was raised there. Age 31 I moved to South Africa. The English language spoken here isn't the same. The culture of the "English" South African people bears little resemblance to the England I grew up in.

Fast forward to 2017 and my wife and I moved to England for work. But now the culture of England has changed so much that it's unrecognisable to me as the country I left.

2020 and we came back to South Africa. Covid changed the culture even more.

My two closest friends currently in SA are from cultures totally alien to me. One grew up in what is called the "Cape Flats" and her language is a bastardised mix of English and Afrikaans. The other is a girl from Zimbabwe whose first language isn't English at all.

Culturally we have nothing in common but we can openly chat over a meal as humans who are equally confused by the state of the planet.

Linguistically we don't share a common language.

But we can communicate because at the heart of the matter we understand that we live out our lives on a small blue planet in the vastness of space for what in cosmic terms is the blink of an eye.

We don't share the same religious beliefs and practices. Western society is vastly different from what has existed for the last 50 years in SA and Zimbabwe. Our skins have different melanin content.

But Jeff Dunham is funny to all of us. We can all enjoy an episode of Bones. We appreciate each others music and we are enriched by each others company.

Communication is down to personal skill. Everyone has something in common with everyone else. Maybe not the same thing, but everyone can find common ground with anyone they meet if you have an open mind.

As I said, "race" is a relatively modern construct that was designed to prevent the 99% from recognising we have more in common than we have differences - and it's the difference that enriches us

[OlderAndWiser]

If it’s not okay to have a statewide association of white pharmacists, then it shouldn’t be okay to have a statewide association of black pharmacists. Either tell me that we should be a colorblind society - and mean it - out tell me that it’s okay to use race as a criteria. Isn’t that just LOGICAL?


But I suspect logic is not what many want on this issue!

[exitseven]

This is just the opposite of what people should be doing. I went to college at a place that had a black student union. I knew that if I went there I would not be welcome. I knew that there would never be a white student union. Is that even fair? This is what pisses people off.

[Lliam]

Are whites allowed to segregate based on race?

I don't think racial segregation is healthy or beneficial.

[lightbulb27]

tricky question. I don't think so, it would be protested if not litigated. But they attempt to in various areas.
I agree, I look at the "black or chinese physicists"... what benefit does it have to limit by race? I'd rather have the diversity.

[OddBeMe]

Not sure. It’s like racial profiling. A cop trailing a suspect will radio in what he looks like.

I certainly think having segregated communities as much as we do is destroying us. And we should integrate now.

[Anonymous]

Notice no white organisations.

[lightbulb27]

I searched "white men"... couldn't find any.