Ethnicity and Ways of Seeing

By now, most people who visit my blog know that I accept Pierre Chuvin’s definition of Pagan as a “person of the place”, an ethnic religionist. That is, the religion of a particular people from a particular geographically defined area. An ethnic group has not only a distinct religion (in its original state, or we could say, pre-monoculture) but a distinct culture. They have their own societal norms, their own laws, their own mode of dress. They may or may not have the same skin tone as their neighbors. It doesn’t matter. Ethnicity is not defined by skin color. As understood in ancient times, for example, Hellenism was not just a term for ethnic Greeks, not just for Pagans, but a term for those who accepted the Greek way of life. You could be from Egypt or Italy and be a Hellene.

Ethnicity and race are two terms that get confused in our culture. Everyone talks about race as though Earth was inhabited by all kinds of alien species. What race are you? People speak of race as if there is more than one. There isn’t. There is one, just one – the human race, period. And there are ethnic variations but all ethnic variations are human. They’re all of the same race. For example, I am Northern European – Scandinavian, to be specific.

This is a bit of a rant in that regard. I get sick of being asked if I am “Caucasian” on forms both online and off. I am not. I have nothing to do with the Caucasus Mountains. I’ve never seen them. The term itself is offensive. It’s a pseudo-scientific term from the 19th century that no more belongs in our lexicon than phrenology (the study of bumps on the skull). It’s time we were done with it.

I was taking an online poll this morning that asked me what my ethnicity was – by some UN foundation of all things! (shouldn’t they know better if anyone should?). I was given the choice of saying “White.” White! I did not know “white” was an ethnicity. Where are white people from? What language do they speak? What is the language of “Whiteville”? Other choices offered geographical locations, at least, which allows the responder to come closer to an accurate answer. But I can’t say white. It’s not an ethnicity. I had to answer that I preferred not to answer, which is a lie as well because I really would have liked to answer, but they didn’t give me a choice of “no answer” – just “I would prefer not to answer.”

Walls all around us, forcing us into a box, forcing us to view the world in unnatural ways. Are you black, white, or Chinese? What kind of question is that? Two are colors, one is an actual ethnicity. That’s like asking “do you like blue, red, or marbles?” It’s nonsensical.

This is the kind of world we live in folks. The powers that be have decided that the world, for the sake of bureaucracy (or some other arcane purpose I have not yet divined) is divided up in certain ways and we must, we simply MUST conform to that way of seeing things. But I refuse. I won’t answer that I’m white. I won’t answer that I’m Caucasian. If I can, I will say “other” and then scribble in that I’m Scandinavian.

The first and most important step we, as members of the same race, can take, is to see the world for what it is. To avoid trying to make the world conform to artificial limitations. Otherwise we fall pray to a unilateral epistemology that dictates a view of the world, and therefore, an understanding of the world that has nothing to do with the reality of it.

I will choose to see the world as it is, based not only on my perception of it, but on the perception of others. I won’t have my reality dictated to me. I won’t conform to make some bureaucrat happy. I am me – who and what I am – even if the reality of me defies demarcation. We need a new paradigm folks, because the one they’re trying to shove down our throats is a fantasy.

Me? I prefer reality. I’ll live in the real world and leave ideological constructs to others.