Is Language Ethnicity?

How did Greeks describe their ethnicity?  What made someone Greek?

Language more than any other factor determined who was Greek during the time Homer wrote his epoch poems, The Illiad and The Odyssey, though actually those ancient Greeks referred to themselves as "Hellenes."  As far as Hellenes were concerned, all other ethnicities spoke with indecipherable sounds that sounded like little more than "bar bar bar bar bar"  Hence, non-Greeks were considered inferior Barbarians.

We can't hear any people from the past actually speak, but fortunately, Greeks were literate, and some of their great works have survived from antiquity.

When I heard Colgate University's Dr. Robert Garland state in his Great Courses Class, "The Greek World: A Study of History and Culture"  that language is what defined someone as Greek, it clicked for me as perhaps being true in general as well as that specific instance.

It seems so obvious.  I mean what how can we possibly know what color skin colored bones that remain centuries earlier?

Similarly, we can generally infer from different dialects of a given language like English what the speaker's nationality likely is.  Isn't that far more significant than skin color, which for many of us varies depending on the season.  My skin would be darker if I'd been siteseeing in Greece in summer than if I was holed up inside an English pub at Christmas, but I would still the same person.

When we hear Tiger Woods speak, do we doubt he is American?  Of course not.  We proudly proclaim him as American.  The same is true for Shaquille O'Neal, even if he may be Irish based on his surname.

Way back in my freshman year in high school, my Geography teacher Mr. Blake theorized in an off-hand preamble that in 500 years, most Americans would have caramel colored skin.  His example might have been Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, if had been a celebrity in those days.  That Geography teacher went on to say that skin color really was a terrible determinant of race, with skull shape being much more indicative.  That teachers words also resonated with me, as did Rev. Martin Luther King's.

Certainly, in Rwanda and Burundi, the Hutu and Tutsi have similar skin color but consider themselves different races, leading at one point to that country's horrific genocide.  There are general differences in skull shapes and body types, but as the teacher in "The African Experience" course I recently completed said, that was despite the fact that after centuries of interbreeding, the difference in appearance often came down to either identity carried forward based on the paternal or maternal side of the family or, more to the point, self-identification. 

That situation came about as the result of the taller, thinner Tutsis migrating to the region and taking control something like nobles in the period before Europeans drew up artificial borders, but Africa still deals with similar problems caused by artificial borders drawn up by imperial European powers in "the Scramble" of the late 1800's that combined historically different tribes into nations by government fiat.  Often, tribes speak different dialects if not entirely different languages.  Of course, their clothing and mannerisms also factor in, but we can tell someone's social standing to a large extent based on how they talk.

We've all seen a dark-skinned person speak with a pronounced British accent, for example, and known that he wasn't from Los Angeles, Cuba, Norway or Uganda.  We understand that he's British, and someone with an ear for specific accents might say he's Cockney or from the upper class.  

Australia is part of the United Kingdom, and they also speak English, but it is pretty easy to identify someone from Down Under by certain words he uses, such as "mate," as well as a certain Aussie drawl.

Canada, which is another huge, far-flung part of the British Empire, also speaks English, but in a more American way, eh?  Of course, England defeated France to create this 14th British Colony, and subsequently Canada refused to join in the revolution of the other 13 that became the United States of America, perhaps in part because the Seven Year War armistice allowed "French Canadians" to keep their religion, customs and, most distinctly, their language.  French-Canadians nonetheless speak English as a second language, but with French accents.  Skin-color, however, has nothing to do with differentiating them as French-Canadians.

Unfortunately, we have a large group of people in what should be our United States of America who see skin color as ethinicity.  They shout loudly and even riot to make sure we divide based on skin color.

We currently have riots in Minnesota because a "white" female cop fatally wounded a "half black, half white" driver when she pulled her pistol instead of a taser, shooting the driver who had an outstanding warrant when he failed to follow her directions.

Did race come into play?  If that cop's partner, a black man, had made the same mistake, then would that be seen as a black cop killing a half-white man due to racism?

No, because the narrative when the killer is a cop, unlike any other person according to some, has nothing to do with the sex or race of the person wielding deadly force.  All cops are evil, according to that narrative.  All cops want to kill all non-white men, and that anti-cop narrative that echoes in disturbingly high offices.

I personally would go with a variation of a famous Greek logical proposition as explanation.

All humans can err.

All cops are humans.

Ergo, all cops can err.  

Cops are authorized to use deadly force, and as such, this type of negligence can indeed be heinous.  Fortunately, it statistically rarely happens, and in fact I would say a cop shoting a pistol when she thought she was using a taser may have never happned.  Of course, we all wish it to never happened once and pray it never happns again, no one more than the woman who tragically fired her weapon.  Most would call any such incident "unforgiveable."

 "To err is human; to forgive divine." That wisdom is not from Plato, the Bible or William Shakespeare, but written by British Poet Alexander Pope in 1711.

With our advanced technology and knowlege, we remain very human.  So do cops.

The driver had a record that popped into the high tech system in the police car.  That would certainly make the cop's hair stand on end, especially if prior arrests involved weapons possession or violence.  Approaching the vehicle with caution would take on heightened tension.

Did that driver come to the attention of cops because of expired tags on his car, as the police claim, or because he was "driving while black," as the protesters shout?

For what it is worth, I think my tanned skin is darker than the victim Daunte Wright, based on photos I've seen in news stories.

As such, I would say if race was the reason for pulling him over, as protesters say, it may have more to do with clothes, mannerisms, music being played or hair, than with skin color.  Those are all elements within the control of each of us, like the way we speak.  It comes down to whom we choose to emulate.

Perhaps you've seen the hillarious character portrayed by Vince Vaughn in the movie, "Be Cool."

While admittedly including that may be too lighthearted for such a serious topic, it seems to me that we all need to lighten up, and I'm not talking about skin color.

I mean, we need to learn how to forgive our fellow Americans who choose to sport different dialects, clothing and mannerisms.

However, we also must be a country of law and order.

In any case, this blog post has spun off in an unexpected direction.

The point I wanted to make is that we should not define ourselves by our skin color but by our shared values, and to a great extent, language shapes our values.  That's why so many in cancel culture now wish to stifle perfectly valid debate and mothball meaningful descriptive words while at the same time telling us we must accept whatever new terms they deem worthy.

Oddly, some terms are acceptable only when used by those within a particular segement of the community, or else it is offensive.  The term "queer" comes to mind, and of course the N-word used in many rap songs would be totally unacceptable coming from President Joe Biden.

Unlike countries like India with their rigid historical caste system or even our mother country England, which still has a "House of Lords" for the landed gentry and "House of Commons" representing the common people, in our country, we all have freedom to elevate our ambitions above our initial lot, at least in theory.

We certainly choose how we present ourselves and how we will spend our lives.

Recently, I must admit I have come to lose respect for the education systems of inner cities, which have failed these beautiful children with low expectations, subpar curriculums and most recently failure to even have teachers appear in classrooms.

Those kids coming out of that system --- and in particular the children in single-parent households shutdown in tenaments for the last year --- will not have the same opportunities as children of parents who can afford to live in the best public school districts or send their kids to private schools.

Many children --- and perhaps at this stage we are talking about most children --- are being taught to hate the most successful culture in human history rather than assimilate into it.  They are taught to fear authority rather than aspire to reach positions of responsibility to make the world better.

As I've often mentioned to younger people, my generation was fortunate to have been spoon fed wise philosophical truths through the music of the Beatles and other performers whose message music still resonates today, but in many communities that posivity has been drowned out by rhyming philosophies of hate.

We need to teach our children to focus on what they want to happen rather than run from what they fear, and to identify as Americans rather than sub-group.