[ExI] Race Biology (was Larks vs Night Owls)

[Damien Broderick]

At 08:05 PM 3/18/2008 -0700, Stuart LaForge wrote:

>--- Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
> > What characteristics are you referring to?  Race and therefore
> > "racial characteristics" are a scientific fallacy, as surely you realize.
>...
> > Which of course is flat-out impossible, since race doesn't exist.
>
>Sure it does. As a cultural and socioeconomic phenomenon. Not as a
>biological one.

Lee's dry sarcasm might have misfired in this case (I was pretty sure 
it would). Even so, Stuart's response shows nicely why that sarcasm 
was rather ill-conceived. Even in the case of certain phenotypes 
linked together by history and local selective pressures, the "race" 
of an individual is just shorthand to the heightened likelihood of 
finding the expressed character in question. Since we know the evil 
consequences of easily making such "racial" linkages, there are sound 
motives to walk very carefully in using such shortcuts when they are 
really superficial or due to accidents of culture and political choice.

Damien Broderick