https://archive.ph/2022.08.20-093147/https://unherd.com/2022/08/race-is-a-delusion/

In the comments

The trouble in general is that America gets to define these debates to begin with. I knew a self identified African American while living in South Africa who was enraged, on meeting me, when I thought he was white.

In South Africa, race is constructed very differently to how it is in the USA. The “one drop” racial construct would inevitably mean a large proportion of Afrikaners would be defined as black, despite being culturally of dutch descent. Apartheid would likely not even have been possible if 1/3rd of its would-be allies were classified as the enemy.

Of course, there was no telling my American friend. His belief was essentially that the whole of South Africa had got it wrong and that the way race was done in the USA was the “proper” way.

Sadly, one part of the USA’s cultural hegemony is that it increasingly defines racial terms with its absurd ‘pencil tests’ globally, with often unpleasant outcomes.