[ExI] Race Biology

Rafal Smigrodzki rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com
Fri Mar 21 21:27:07 UTC 2008


On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 1:50 AM, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>
wrote:

>
> What Stuart and Rafal were disagreeing about was precisely the
> salience of the biological in the ideological construct called
> "race". Yes, of course it's an element; skin color and hair type is
> biological--but the *use* to which those markers are put has for
> hundreds or thousands of years been cultural.
>
>
### According to Webster's dictionary, a race is a breeding stock of
animals, or a taxonomic category within a species (like a breed), or a group
of people belonging to the same stock (i.e. descent). Plus a few other
meanings, including cultural ones.

The primary meaning has to do with decent, and identifiable differences
between groups of different descent within a potentially interbreeding
population. These are strictly biological facts, in the sense that an
automaton completely ignorant of culture would be able to analyze and
properly segregate organisms strictly by investigating their inherited
traits. Of course, if Stuart flatly denies the biological existence human
races, I will point to the well-established biological definition.

Now, we could start the old dictionary scuffle. One could say that there are
situations where the term "race" is used in a culturally defined way (as in
"Aryan race"). Or one could point to the lumpers and splitters among
anthropologists and the controversy over the number of human races (3? 30?
300?). But what's the point? Biological races exist, it's an undeniable
fact. Whether races exist or not, haters will find an excuse to hate. It's a
wrong idea to deny facts simply because haters use the facts as excuses (not
reasons) for hating.

It's much more fruitful to say that race is a strictly biological concept,
frequently misused by ideologues, rather than to claim that race is an
ideological concept, with some shaky make-believe biology tacked on. If you
take the latter approach, you will have to twist your mind into denying hard
science facts, and this is unhealthy for a rational person to do. You will
not defuse racial hatred, since racists don't care much about biology.
Palestinians and Sephardim are essentially identical on the genetic level
but still engage in mutual slaughter. You can't fight racism if you put
yourself in opposition to facts, and simply try to put racists down on the
ideological level.

You can be much more effective if you are familiar and friendly with the
biological facts, and say you simply don't hate any people, unless the
individuals in question actually do something evil. Like beating an innocent
man because of his skin color. Isn't this more reasonable?

The proper way is to say "Race is real. And I don't care a damn".

Rafal
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