Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: USConstitutionBuff
Skull shape differences are not useful except to archaeologists or racists.

And like I said, once you've come to that conclusion, you've put the burden of proof upon anyone who claims otherwise to prove it, which becomes a matter of proving that they aren't secretly engaged in the though crime of racism, which is an impossible task. Even if certain questions are normally asked for entirely racist reasons, is it really scientific to declare engire ranges of questions and knowledge off limits because it might be misused by racists?

In a society where a sports team can get sued for having no athletes of a particular race or sex or a company can be sued for having no employees of a particular race or sex in a particular job category, determining where the discrepancy comes from can lead to issues of morphology and general intelligence. Since we are a society that is so obsessed with racial and ethnic differences, they should be studied, and it could be useful to know if the prevailing dogma (which may very well be true) that there are no important differences between the races really is true if we are going to base public policies on top of those assumptions.

For the record, I do think it's important to scrutinize such research to some degree to make sure that it's not simply racist pseudo-science but I think that the assumption that any researcher who studies such issues must be racist or motivated by racism and a refusal to accept any explanation or assurances that it isn't is going way too far.

52 posted on 10/31/2005 9:37:23 AM PST by Question_Assumptions
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies ]


To: Question_Assumptions
They don't have to prove that they are not a racist, they just have to prove that their study will be of some possible use if it is to receive funding.

I recommend "The Mismeasure of Man" by Steven Jay Gould for a history of this widely discredited theory of skull shape and racial differences. The situation got so bad that people actually used the shape of someone's skull to determine if they were the "criminal type" or not, and therefore capable of rehabilitation, or even if they were capable of committing a crime.
53 posted on 10/31/2005 9:47:31 AM PST by USConstitutionBuff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson