Correct.
Oh so the definition of being white varies now? People are dermofluid or something? “I’m white skinned but I’m not white.”
The definition of being white, like all definitions, can indeed vary based on time and place, yes. Whether someone is white “enough” to be included in the category of “white people” is not an objective fact and will change from culture to culture, from time to time, and even from one individual perspective to the next.
Racial categories in Europe were more complex than they generally are today, especially in America. It’s difficult to maintain distinctions in race between different European nationalities when everyone’s immigrating to the same place and having kids together, so over time these subtle distinctions have dropped off somewhat in favor of the simpler categories of “white” and “non-white.” But some of these distinctions still remain, for instance, many people who identify as “white nationalists” or even “white supremacists” also hate Jews, including Jewish people with white skin. Hitler’s infamous 14 words declare that a future must be secured “for our white children,” yet clearly he did not consider white-skinned Jewish people to be included in that definition.
As absurd as it may be to say that someone can have white skin but not be considered white, it can happen. The reason it doesn’t make sense is because race is, to a large degree, something that is socially constructed and nonsensical.
While the comparison to Pooh originates from a meme in China, many of us would argue that the comparison in general has racist connotations especially when used in the West, and that that image is a perfect illustration of why we think that.
We’d also say that the Pooh story has been exaggerated pretty wildly, along with many redditor memes about China. Rumors can get out of control sometimes, especially when people get dismissed for fact-checking and accused of being bots or paid agents, and so on. Winnie the Pooh isn’t banned in China, as some might believe, and it’s pretty easy to verify that by looking at the website for Shanghai Disneyland or searching “Pooh” on any Chinese platform such as baidu.com or weibo.cn.
My reservation was specifically that the MeanwhileOnGrad comm has a charicature of Xi Jinping where his skin is colorized to be yellow. I think that turning an Asian person’s skin yellow as a charicature is racist, and I felt that allowing that on a comm reflected poorly on the instance. I don’t mind that people hold different views from us (as many on lemm.ee and lemmy.ml do), but we don’t tolerate racism or bigotry. Despite that, I did vote to federate, in part because it’s such a small comm.