We do not wake up each day with a blank mind. Through a life time we have formed opinions, made judgements and acquired facts that inform how we see and understand the world. We "construct" a viewpoint, usually in the form of a story about who we are and how we related to the percieved world.
We don't do this alone. We call our shared "constructions of reality" social constructions. Race is a social construction.
Biologicially, we are one species, with no significant differences between all the peoples of this planet. Yet, people who live in communities, and these people share social constructions that have been passed down from generation to generation. Race was an idea that was constructed in three hundred years ago, yet it still informs peoples consciousness at present.
White people is a social construction. People of color is a social construction. White means not colored. Colored means not white. Circular. Dumb.
Who is and who isn't "white" has evolved over time. I was a child in an "interracial" family, in Jim Crow Texas. Interracial marriages were illegal in some states and not in others, and interracial couples moved from states that recognized their marriages to states that would not have allowed them to be married, but did not challenge their marriages if they didn't raise a fuss. Texas was a let sleeping dogs lay state. Lots of Texans had native ancestors and they were hoping that dog would stay asleep for a long, long time. Don't stir up trouble now....
In one context, I was considered "white" and in one context I was considered "mixed blood" and non - white. Go see my Father's family and we were Indians.
Racism was real, and it was painful. But from the perspective one little boy, it was based on make believe differences.
Social construction is a much more dignified way of saying "make believe," of saying that race is more than a bad idea. But "make believe" can hurt. Sometimes I think "make believe" hurts more than genuine differences.
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