I had a huge long reply to this that took me 2 days to write and I guess it disappeared when the servers went down...because it was just before the servers went down. lol I'll try to be more succinct this time to avoid the servers going down.
I live on the East Coast of Canada and the majority of my ancestors are First Nations people and Scots, on both sides of my family. But that means I did not grow up on a reserve but nobody in my family ever went to residential school and both of my parents knew the same indigenous language even though they grew up in different parts of the province. And we were raised a little differently. In particular we weren't told that people were sorted into races and I must have been at least 9 or 10 before I knew that. they call this non-interference now, and that's the way it was with many things -- you don't give information to children that isn't necessary and let them figure out their world on their own as much as possible.
Most of the male Scots were indentured servants (sentenced for insurrection or fighting against the British or born into it) , and they got their freedom and a land grant for joining British regiments during the revolutionary war in US (many later became privateers because they had no education and the land was not that great). At that time the relationship with indigenous people in Nova Scotia was beneficial to both (and a lot of people got married, obviously) and it wasn't until after more companies and people came here that resources and land became "scarce" -- it isn't actually because most land here is still owned by the government, so there is more than enough to settle land claims. After 1867 and the confederation of Canada it was somehow deemed necessary to push indigenous peoples off their land and force them to assimilate and it seems that this is when it became necessary to both infantilize and villainize them, to portray them as savages rather than trading partners. Had they not done that, the bigger project wouldn't have been acceptable. As a kid I only knew that my life was different than my cousins' because I grew up in the city. By that time the residential school was already closed -- we used to pass it on the way to my grandmother's house, but I didn't know what that big building was for until my mother thought I was old enough to know about it.
It's odd that some of the same rules were imposed on the Scots, like they weren't allowed to gather in groups of more than 5 except for family, they weren't allowed to speak Gaelic (which my father's family did). I guess they were being discriminated against...possibly...but my father said it was because the Scots were considered subversive and if the rules were relaxed they would rebel, and they would have. But now both Gaelic and Mi'kmaq are taught in high school to any student who wants to learn the language. I think if you look at any colonial project, even self-colonizations, you'll find the same patterns including lack of recognition for land ownership, especially where it is collectively owned, suppression of languages and portrayal of people as "others". And unfortunately we still see the same patterns being followed today, not just in the rainforests of Brazil but in North American cities.
So of course I agree with Prince Ea -- race is just a construct. It isn't natural to sort people like crayons and it isn't necessary unless there is ulterior agenda. Personally I think it keeps us from respecting people for more important reasons like their cultural heritage or their family history. These are the things that actually make us who we are.
