[Marxism] Color and light source was Re: white supremacists target middle America

[Aaron Aarons]

A few references and scattered observations follow.

 - Aaron

>Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:43:08 -0600
>From: "Néstor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro at gmail.com>
>
>2008/10/26 Joaquin Bustelo <jbustelo at gmail.com>:
>> Fred writes: "He let the Irish off the hook, too, though they were often
>> rather pale, or so it seemed to me."  The Irish are fair-skinned. The
>> English are pale.

For the Irish in the U.S., see "How the Irish Became White" by Noel Ignatiev (ISBN 0415963095 or 0415918251).

>Wow. That´s a precise definition. I am sure Joaquin´s intention is
>ironic, but it is far from false.
>
>It has always been quite striking for me to discover how deeply
>ingrained is, in the psyche of common sense Anglos, the color
>distinction, this that G.M. Trevelyan famously described as  "the
>higher color sensitivity of Englishmen" or words to that effect. The
>most unbelievable thing with it is its social character. Color
>distinctions vary with the place where colors are used as a social
>barrier in the same way the color of the source of light "changes" the
>colors of the objects perceived.

Speaking of the source of light, how does one explain the popularity of tanning salons (and tanning in general) at least among U.S. whites, though that popularity has apparently decreased along with the increased awareness of malignant melanoma?

>In Argentina, for instance, where the Irish were co-opted to the
>Anglo-Argentinean establishment as almost equals, they are considered
>full "white", as compared to, say, not just Native or Creole (Mestizo)
>Argentineas (the greatest bulk of the population) but also
>Argentineans of Spanish or Italian origin, particularly those of
>Andalusian or Mezzogiorno origin.

I was aware of the long-time English economic domination of Argentina, but this is the first I've heard of Spanish Argentines being in a lesser caste than those of English (or Irish) origin. (Nestor Kirchner's ethnic background is, apparently Swiss plus Croatian. Where does that fit in?)

> And it is also funny to see how Jews, who tend to be considered
>"dark" or "semitic" in Northern Europe (please read Marx himself on
>Lassalle, for a strikingly unexpected example), are also "white" here.

An interesting, if imperfect, book on the subject of Jews and whiteness in the U.S.is "How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America" (ISBN 081352590X).

>South America "whitens" the dark guys from Europe...

In Russia, real, actual Caucasians are considered "Blacks", while "scientific racism" calls whites "Caucasians"! And at least some historian-demographers argue that Ashkenazi Jews are actually Caucasians.