Saturday, January 29, 2011

My (Incomplete) ~"People of Color" Page~ on my "Off-Wikipedia" Blog

[ This is the first Wikipedia Article I have ever written, and wanted to post. This article got deleted. This is my first "Off-Wikipedia" Informational post. ]

"Person of Color" The term "Person of Color" is commonly used to describe persons of color, [ It is commonly assumed that the person described can be of any color; technically, the term is used to describe people with skin tones similar to five of the basic colors human beings are grouped into: black, brown, red (cooper), yellow and white]. A second, less inclusive definition, of "person of color" is used to describe "any non-European non-white person." [1]

According to Wikipedia:
Person of color (plural: people of color; persons of color) is a term used, primarily in the United States, to describe all people who are not white. The term is meant to be inclusive among non-white groups, emphasizing common experiences of racism. [SIC] [2] In the United States, this particular term is slightly confusing. For example, many "white Americans" are European descendants, who may have skin pigmentations that range from light brown, to tanish-yellow, to peach, pink and white. Futhermore, many Asian-Americans have skin tones which appear white; they are considered Asian because of facial characteristics, and other identity ties. People in many large human populations express a range of skin pigmentations and skin tones. For Example, Europe has approximately 45 countries; [3] Europeans express a range of skin colors and tones. There are many dark-brown native people living in Spain, lighter-brown, or tan, people living in Romania, or, as is increasingly true, "black" British people, also known as "black Brits" [4], living today in the United Kingdom.


Is Classifying People Together under "Basic Colors" Similar to Scientific Racism?



According to Wikipedia, as a term, "scientific racism" denotes the contemporary and historical scientific theories that employ anthropology (notably physical anthropology), anthropometry, craniometry, and other disciplines, in fabricating anthropologic typologies supporting the classification of human populations into physically discrete human races. [5] Factually speaking, the Human population contains a wide variety of skin coloration; far greater then five basic colors.


The term "Person of Color" is used to describe "persons of color," the person can be described using color terminology other than red, yellow, black, brown, or white.


Why Are People Different Colors?

Human skin color is quite variable around the world. It ranges from a very dark brown among some Africans, Australians, and Melanesians to a near yellowish pink among some Northern Europeans. One noted researcher has written, "There are no people who actually have true black, white, red, or yellow skin. These are commonly used color terms that do not reflect biological reality." [6]


Photobucket Photobucket [ Image of woman found from Google Image ]

Photobucket [ Image of Yuan Xiaochao found from Google Image. ]



Photobucket [ Image of woman with a "sunburn" found from Google Image ]



What is the Difference between "Genotype" and "Phenotype?"



People who study heredity explain that most traits are geneticlly linked, but some are influenced by the environment, or the individual.

For example:


Genetic Traits: Skin color, Height, natural Hair color.


Environmentally Influenced Traits: Skin that is darkened by the sun, called by people, getting "sun-tanned," "sun-browned," or "sun-burnt."

Certain Environmentally influenced traits are the results of human activity and, or the environment. For example: People with naturally occuring brown hair may "bleach" or "dye" their hair so that it appears red or blond using hair dyes, or other natural products (such as lemon juice). Older people may use hair dyes to darken their hair in an effort to cover the "gray" hair that sometimes occur during human aging. Another example of a human influenced change in bodily appearance would be chemical hair straighteners. Using chemical "perms," a person with naturally curly hair can make their hair appear (temporarily) straight. Since hair cells (on the head's surface) are dead, using chemicals to create a "chemical change" is not painful (although the chemically changed effect fades as the chemically treated hair falls out, and is replaced by the person's natural hair growth). Scientist who study genetics may use two terms when describing a person's apperance: phenotype or genotype.


Phenotype: 1: The observable physical or biochemical characteristics of an organism, as determined by both genetic makeup and environmental influences. [7] 2: Any observable characteristic or trait of an organism. [8]



Genotype: The genotype is the genetic makeup of a cell, an organism, or an individual (i.e. the specific allele makeup of the individual) usually with reference to a specific character under consideration. [9]

Links

1. Dictionary Link: The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/person+of+color" 2. Wikipedia Article "Person of Color": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color 3. Online Link: World Countries.info:http://www.worldcountries.info/Europe.htm 4. Online Link: The New York Times "Go Back to Black" by K.A. Dilday, Feb 27, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/opinion/27dilday.html (key term: "black brits") 5. Online Link: Wikipedia Article: Scientific Racism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism The Wikipedia writers include a list of refrences. The source material for the term "scientific racism" is unclear. The references include: A: term used from the 1960s, following Juan Comas B: "Ostensibly scientific": cf. Adam Kuper, Jessica Kuper (eds.), The social science encyclopedia (1996), "Racism", p. 716: "This [sc. scientific] racism entailed the use of 'scientific techniques', to sanction the belief in European and American racial superiority"; Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Questions to sociobiology (1998), "Race, theories of", p. 18: "Its exponents [sc. of scientific racism] tended to equate race with species and claimed that it constituted a scientific explanation of human history"; Terry Jay Ellingson, The myth of the noble savage (2001), 147ff. "In scientific racism, the racism was never very scientific; nor, it could at least be argued, was whatever met the qualifications of actual science ever very racist" (p. 151); Paul A. Erickson,Liam D. Murphy, A History of Anthropological Theory (2008), p. 152: "Scientific racism: Improper or incorrect science that actively or passively supports racism". 6. Online Webpage Link: Skin Color Adaptation: http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_4.htm 7. Online definiton taken from the American Heritage Dictionary. Online Link: http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/phenotype 8. Wikipedia Article: Phenotype: Online Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenotype 9. Wikipedia Article: Genotype: Online Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genotype

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