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non_radical_centrist  8mo ago (astralcodexten.com)   2897 thread views

How Should We Think About Race And "Lived Experience"?

astralcodexten.com

I'm generally a fan of "blurry" definitions where something can qualify as X if it fulfills a few of many criteria. I think trying to create hard rules around blurry areas like race and culture is fool's errand, and Scott does a great job laying out how overly strict definitions can go wrong.

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I'm generally a fan of "blurry" definitions where something can qualify as X if it fulfills a few of many criteria.

I am generally a fan of strict and exact legal definitions of identity X, if X is supposed to give you considerable legal privileges and perks.

Without these priviliges, the story would be just tale of personal misfortune. Imagine you are emo (imagine there are still such things as emos) , you dress like emo, you listen to emo music, you go to emo concerts.. but you are one day expelled by your emo friends for not being a real emo.

Tragedy for you, if you based your whole personal self worth of being emo and being seen as one, but no one outside emo community would care.

Now, imagine that emos are seen as oppressed minority and there are designated hiring quotas, tax breaks for emo owned businessed and other benefits, while it is unclear what exactly "emo" means.

See this for introduction into the unholy mess what current American racial law classification is.

I am generally a fan of strict and exact legal definitions of identity X, if X is supposed to give you considerable legal privileges and perks.

I bet you that this 2018 story gets your goat:

With the new birth certificate in hand, he changed his driver's licence and insurance policy.

All to save about $91 a month.

"I'm a man, 100 per cent. Legally, I'm a woman," he said.

"I did it for cheaper car insurance."

When there are legal benefits, it probably is best for a strict definition. It's too open to corruption otherwise. But we can separate that from the social definition. Maybe someone doesn't qualify as a legal emo and get benefits if they don't attend a minimum of five concerts a year, but we can still let them in the social group if they fulfill all the other standards. Ideally, so would concepts like race.

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