Individual,

Sigh, actually I spent a large part of my child hood living overseas, where I saw the behaviour I described first hand.

James Purser re
"Sigh, actually I spent a large part of my child hood living overseas, where I saw the behaviour I described first hand."

And I just referred to what I see everyday now as an adult. The thing is when one goes to another land/culture & lives there for a long time one in a way indicates that one has an interest in that place & it's people. That may either be appreciated or disliked. In Australia a lot of surplus public servants are being sent bush for a two year stint & they have absolutely no interest in the wellbeing of the community. Then there are those in the community who, when asked to pull their weight, object to having to contribute to their own living. How do you then socialise when you're faced with that hopeless scenario. You have a small group of like-minded & they are the ones you hang out with & the others do the same in their enclaves. That situation is called REAL LIFE. Of course the half-baked academic city slickers then call the genuine long-termers rednecks or racists. Having a lot more integrity & foresight people like Pauline get crucified by those ignorant left-wingers

"What nationality are blonde-haired, blue-eyed people?

Perhaps another Hansonite wingnut could answer that one?"

More racists under the bed, CJ?

People from Northern European ethnic backgrounds seem more likely to have blonde hair and blue eyes, than say, somebody of East Asian ancestry, do you agree? And since most nations are founded on ethnicity, is it at all conceivable that a Finnish national is more likely to have blonde hair and blue eyes than a Chinese national?

You know, CJ, I'm beginning to suspect that you've got some kind of monomaniacal obsession with 'race' (even though we both know, strictly speaking, there is no such thing). What is driving this unhealthy fixation?

This is a bit like pulling teeth. Dresdener now acknowledges that there is no such thing as 'race' when applied to humans, but can't quite bring himself to confront his own faulty logic.

Of course people's phenotypes reflect the geographical origins of their ancestors, but this has nothing whatsoever to do with their nationality. Dresdener is on firmer ground when he links ethnicity with nationality, but this has little to do with 'race' - rather, the markers of ethnicity are culture, language, shared history, identity etc.

Yes, a Finnish national is more likely to have blonde hair and blue eyes than a Chinese national, but how would you distinguish a Finn from a Swede, Norwegian or Estonian on the basis of eye and hair colour? In fact, if you'd ever been to that part of the world you'd know that there very many Northern Europeans who don't fit your 'racial' stereotype - and I'm not talking about Saami here.

More to the point, how on earth could you discern the nationality of a carriage full of train travellers in Melbourne on the basis of their appearance alone? Dresdener, I'm not "fixated" on 'race', but I think that the deep-rooted racism evident among you Hansonites is one of the biggest problems facing Australian society today.

cj It is obvious that you have problems with race. Would that make you a 'racist'? How many posts will you put in before you find out what the carriage held? Why is it so vitally important to you? Do you have a fetish? Or are you simply a bullying left winger who tries very hard to belittle people who have the misfortune to disagree with your wonderful self.I am very sorry for you.

Dresdener,

I don't think CJ is fixated on race at all. Your should not confuse his erudite approach to race and racism theories with your own benign fear and loathing of anyone who is not white.

One hand you agree there is no such thing as race but simultaneously only want to give it agency when you think it fits your own potty ideas.

Please pull your head out of your backside before you suffocate!