[quote]shizen wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
shizen wrote:
fireplug52 wrote:
But really, who cares? What possible good could possessing this information create? Are you planning on selectively drafting the perfect race for sports?
well its interesting for one, but if you just want to look at its importance then it could help science. For example, imagine their was a pattern for why African Americans were stronger and faster, then there would be a way to find out why this is true and how to make other people have those traits.
Dude, seriously, haven’t we already established that race is a socially constructed phenomenon and not a genetic (scientifically accepted) one.
Here, let me illustrate my point.
How do you define whether a person is “African American”?
Skin color? Facial features? African heritage/ancestry (how much do they need in order to be considered “African” American)? And even if they have African ancestry, what part of Africa do their ancestors come from? Are you suggesting that all people from the continent of Africa can be lumped into one neat category and that they will all share similar genetic traits?
Are you seeing where this is going yet? Are you seeing how flawed this line of thinking is?
Are you trying to say we all have the same traits? This is not true either, obviously some trait they have-from w/e- allows them to do well. It’s obviously not understood, but it seems to be apparent.
Also it being a social phenomenon is not true either, seeing as how there are more poor whites and Mexicans-who live in shity neighborhoods also- who don’t do as well as say African Americans-in terms of sports-. [/quote]
Say what?
Did you even read what I wrote? Or did you just completely not comprehend what I was saying?
My point was not that every human being has the same genetic traits. My point was that trying to predict what traits someone will have based on a socially constructed phenomenon like Race is pointless. Individuals have the “best” genetics, there is no such thing as race. Also, as others have said throughout this thread, “best” depends on the task at hand.
You are also completely misunderstanding what I mean by race being a “socially” constructed phenomenon. What I mean is that society creates certain categories, concepts, or rules that it applies to it’s members.
For instance, gender is a socially constructed phenomenon. We dress baby boys in blue, and baby girls in pink, men are supposed to be strong, independent, emotionally unexpressive. Women on the other hand are supposed to be weak, submissive and emotionally expressive. Or at least that’s one definition of the different genders.
However, if a man or a woman don’t adhere to these definitions then this still has no effect on their sex, which is more of a scientifically defined phenomenon. By the way, sex also has a social component, as the majority of us in the U.S. anyway think of there only being two sexes. However, in actuality there are numerous other sexes (different types of hermaphrodites).
Race, like gender, is a socially constructed phenomenon, and has nothing to do with economic wealth (though there are certainly social factors that tend to affect the economic wealth of certain groups of people). The whole concept of dividing the population into different groups of “races” is one that society has completely made up.
My point in asking you to define what makes someone “African American” is that when you try to, you realize that not only is it not really possible, but also that you probably have some unconscious racial stereotypes that you have accepted as truth.
Here, I’ll play along further to try to help you understand what I mean about not being able to define “race.”
Okay, now the first thing that a lot of people use to make a quick judgement of what “race” someone belongs in is skin color. This method of categorization has been used for quite some time. I’ll make up an imaginary dialogue where I play both sides, if you can think of something that I didn’t then try using it, and I’ll show you why it’s false.
Okay, so skin color.
You: “If someone has dark skin then they are African American.”
Me: “Well what about “Indians” or “Native Americans” or “Aboriginal people”, they all have dark skin too. So would you say that they are African American.”
You: “Okay, well someone is African American if they have African Ancestry.”
Me: “Well, how much African Ancestry do they need to have in order to be considered African American. What if someone has one person of African ancestry in their family tree (let’s say a great, great grandparent for example), would you still consider them to be African American? Also, are you suggesting that if someone is of Botswana descent that they will have the same genetic traits as someone from Egypt?”
You: “Okay, well then African Americans have certain physical features.”
Me: “Like what broad noses, curly hair, that sort of thing? Well, what about Inuits, or Cambodians, don’t they also have broad noses? And what about the Aboriginal people, they have curly hair. And what about Egyptians, isn’t Egypt a part of Africa? Yet, they don’t have curly hair.”
You: “Okay, well they can build muscle easier.”
Me: “What about Samoans, or Russians like Nathan Jones (Megaman, also the huge guy in the opening fight scene of Troy), or guys like Broc Lesnar, or Japanese Sumo wrestlers. They all seem to build muscle easily, does that make them African American? And what about guys like Manute Bol, he didn’t seem to build muscle all that easily. Does that mean that you would say he’s not African American?”
I can go on and on, but I really don’t see any point. I hope this helps you to understand that you’re basically riding the “escalator to nowhere.” There are no races, so stop trying to figure out which one has the best genetics. Individuals have better or worse genetics, race doesn’t exist.
Good training,
Sentoguy
). But can you say definitively where those individuals came from? Do we refer to them as Arian Americans?