There’s no beating around the bush – last week was a real doozy for whitesplaining.

First, we had Meryl Streep’s, “we’re all from Africa… we’re all Africans, really,” last Thursday at the Berlin International Film Festival, and then the golden response of “we are all mixed-race people” from former President Bill Clinton the day after at a rally for his wife, Hillary Clinton, who is running for the Democratic presidential candidacy.

If I could end this column right here, I would.

With a simple “no” (which, by the way, is a full sentence), we could avoid a whole lot of further explaining and debate, because it should be that simple. But it isn’t.

So, no, Meryl Streep, we are not “all Africans.”

And no, Bill Clinton, we are not “all mixed-race people.”

To begin, race, ethnicity, culture, and identity are all different things.

According to Boundless Communications, “the simplest way to think about culture is to think about the distinction between nature (our biology and genetics) and nurture (our environment and surroundings that also shape our identities). In terms of race an individual is usually externally classified (meaning someone else makes the classification) but individual may also self-identify with a particular racial group.”

Although the theory exists that the first people came from Africa, and that this theory can be noted in genetics and other forms of scientific evidence, our genetic makeup does not equate directly to race, ethnicity, culture, nor our identity.

According to the Huffington Post, Bill Clinton also noted, “you know what else we learned from the human genome? We learned that unless your ancestors, every one of you, are 100 percent, 100 percent from sub-Saharan Africa, we are all mixed-race people.”

Using science to argue for “we are all mixed-race people” is dangerous.

First off, this idea does not equally distribute itself amongst the social constructions and realities of race, ethnicity, culture, or identity. To explain, a social construction is an idea produced by our society, so much so that is taken as being a reality, and not only that, but as part of our natural order and is used to enforce it as such.

That is what race is and does.

In short, saying that “we are all mixed-race people” erases socialized and cultural differences for the sake of promoting “peaceful” colorblind ideology, which eliminates the spectrum of social experience and violence that people have historically experienced because of the social construction of race.

On top of that, science and racism have an extensive history hand-in-hand together, and to use that to promote a color-blind, race-blind rhetoric is nothing short of a mistake with endless harmful potential.

The reality is that there are no biological subspecies of human beings, but race has categorized people in ways that affect their social realities – and in that way, race is real.

Mixed-race people – and I am one of them – can tell you right now that the experience that comes with being mixed-race is something that not everyone can empathize with, because not all of us experience the same social reality that comes with being mixed-race, because not all of us are mixed-race.

And according to Stephen Jordan of Inquistr, after further questioning following her initial statement, Meryl Streep replied, “’I’ve played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures,’ as if that was a sufficient response. And sadly, it seems as if she did not see how problematic that statement was. These intersections – ethnicity, culture, sexuality, gender identity – are all important components in an individual’s life, and they deserve to be acknowledged. Not erased, just so you can avoid the question and move on.”

Bill Clinton and Meryl Streep, did you have to go through the humiliating experience of having your existence being marked with “Colored” at every turn when segregation was legal? Did you have to go to the internment camps of World War II? Do you have to worry about being approached by an immigration agent because of how you look?

I didn’t think so.

We may not all be African or mixed-race, but we can all support them, and their experiences and narratives, over those who do not and share thoughtless blather.