[graemep]

It was historically a caste system though, especially in the South up to the sixties, and there are remnants of that. No doubt it is a weakened caste system, and hopefully dying one, but it still seems present.

Americans seem to still, at the least, attach a lot of importance to race, and to classifying people by race. It is seen as fundamental to who people are: a lot of Americans who seem fine with someone self-identifying their gender find it far harder to accept someone self-identifying their race. Why not? A lot of people report assumptions are made on the basis of race. In a lot of conversations I have with Americans about race seem to assume that people are likely to be overtly treated differently on the basis of their appearance.

I do not know the US so maybe I am out of date or have read the wrong things but I find it a lot harder to understand the importance Americans (not just racists, but people trying to be anti-racist too) attach to race if I am wrong.

[ksenzee]

> maybe I am out of date or have read the wrong things

No, I think you have a better grasp on it than most people outside the US. Americans really want to believe we don’t have a caste system, because it’s antithetical to our origin story and what we feel is true about ourselves, but we absolutely do. So if you listen to us talk, you’ll think we don’t have a caste system. If you watch our actions, you’ll see we still do.

[rincebrain]

If I were to wildly speculate, I might guess that many Americans think of gender as being about presentation and experience, while "race" is almost entirely about shared experience - which, yes, is often informed by reactions to one's appearance, or lack thereof, but that's not the identifying characteristic.

So it comes across as similarly distasteful to someone claiming to be "long lost Uncle Eddie", because they saw your family through the glass at a holiday and liked what they saw - since you weren't here for a billion shared little experiences, and there's no claim that you were from the same grandparents or similar, it rings hollow and like you want something from it.

[graemep]

Interesting idea. How much shared experience is there though - for example between poor and affluent people of the same race? What about immigrant groups who look similar but have very different culture and experiences? I cannot imagine an affluent black African immigrant will have much in common with a poor black American. I know that (in the UK, but it would be just as true in the US) that I do not have much shared experience with other people who look like me (South Asian to Western eyes) but come from different cultures types of area (urban vs rural is a big difference) and family backgrounds.

[gamblor956]

If what America has is a caste system, then the UK has a caste system. And France. And China. And the entire world. Because to make what America has into caste system, you render the term meaningless.

A caste system is s social hierarchy that determines who you can socialize with, what you can learn, and what you can do for living. That's not how race works in America.