Race Sorting, Activity and Privilege

I decided to complete the Sorting People PBS assignment while at work so I grabbed a co-worker and close friend of mine to help me out with this activity.  I figured this would be a really neat way to have 2 perspectives present while going through the racial matching process.  My friend is Asian.  There we were, choosing who belonged in which category.  Fair skin tones go under "White", automatic guess.  Darker complexions go under "Black", and the in-between were fair game for Hispanic, Asian and American-Indian categories.  Soon into the puzzle we found ourselves second-guessing because we were running out of room and were going back and forth on our opposing views about who should go in which category.  About 1/4 of my way through the activity, I found it absurd and pointless to try and place people under different racial classifications.  I grew tired of running out of boxes for a certain race or trying to figure out what they were.  To me, each of these people are clearly human, so what difference did it make what race they were?  To my surprise, I found that I had only guessed 5 races correctly.  My friend and I were both shocked at the results.  This proves that race cannot be simply guessed by skin color because some people who I thought were White were actually Black, and some that I guessed as Asian were actually American Indian.  This made me stop and think about racial classifications today.  Automatically we categorize one another - male/female, young/old, attractive/unattractive, Black/White/Other.  The Black/White/Other category is one that I seem to have been grappling with lately because it is far more complex than what it seems.

Three facts that stood out to me:  Colorblindness will not end racism, Race is a modern idea, and Race has no genetic basis.
The point about colorblindness not ending racism stood out to me because after reading through all of the facts about racism and going through the activity, I came to the conclusion for myself that colorblindness could be a potential remedy for ending racism.  I did not take into account all of the many stereotypes and false judgments that are rooted in skin color before reading this fact. 
I enjoyed reading about race as a modern idea because it coincided with some of the discussion and lecture from Tuesdays' class.  The fact that race is a socially constructed idea that has not been around forever is crucial in education about where racism roots from.
Race having no genetic basis was also interesting because it backs up the argument that race is in fact a modern idea.  This fact also goes alone with the activity of matching races.  Clearly no race has the same genetic makeup across the board.

In the readings "The Roots of Racial Classification" and "Hot White People Became White", we see a merge of how racial classification began.  Both articles discuss different races and how skin color came into the forefront of identity.  Both articles discuss Whiteness and how it even came into play.  The major take-away for me from all of this is the fact that race is used to bring one group to the top ranking, and place all others far below it.  This main group being "White" people and the rest being all other races.  Hence the term "racism" in order to keep other groups below the "highest ranked".  This is crucial in understanding how racism or race even came into existence because without the knowledge of how it happened, a clear direction or solution becomes out of reach.

Before reading the Peggy McIntosh article I had an understanding of "White Privilege" but no in-depth look into what it really is.  It's so beneficial to be able to hear from another race's point of view.  As for privileges that I have, my five are:
1. Being a student at UT
2. Having a car
3. Living in the U.S.
4. Having my own room or living space
5. Speaking English as a first language