The Biological Case Against Race

American Outlook, publication of the Hudson Institute ^ | Spring 2002 | Joseph L. Graves Jr.

[wardaddy]

Then why not Sephardic or Oriental Jews?

[ConsistentLibertarian]

Places that develop quickly tend to have a lot of outside trade. Greece, for example, after they defeated the Penelopensian (?) navy and become a major trading nation. Europeans have a high degree of cultural variation within a geographical area the size of China. You get cross-pollination through trade, travel, war, etc.

[wardaddy]

Because their culture is severely messed up. You may also want to look at the comparative differences when you seperate Caribean blacks from American blacks.

You need to travel to Haiti and Jamaica and observe.

[LWalk18]

Are Jews supposed to be a racial group or a religion? Why would Jews from Eastern Europre than those from Western Europe. Are they different races? In fact, how many races are there- if racial differences are clear cut, then this question should be easy.

[Poohbah]

Beats me, to be honest.

[ConsistentLibertarian]

It's an error in salience. There are probably unrelated statistical differences between people to whom fennel tastes bitter and people to whom it does not. But that clustering of characteristics doesn't jump out at us the way skin pigmentation does. We'd have a hard time even thinking there's a non-random connection even after we convinced ourselves through carefull observation that the satistical differences were real. But when we see statistical differences between people with different skin pigmentation, for some reason, it stirkes people immediately as salient and it's hard for many people even to think it's an accidental connection with no deep explanatory or causal significance.

[wardaddy]

Then which came first, the chicken (race) or the egg (culture)?

a most excellent reply!!

[ThePythonicCow]

His middle name.

[ConsistentLibertarian]

The expression "folk theory" is a handy one to have. There are folk theories about cold remedies, folk theories about unlucky days of the month and folk theories of race. What they have in common is that they are persisent and widely held despite being refutable and frequently refuted. More in a bit.

[ConsistentLibertarian]

"In the United States today, the two ethnic groups which consistently show the highest levels of academic achievement are Jews and Chinese. (Who will say nay?) Someone familiar with test scores and Ivy League admission rates might generalize from this and say, "Jews and Chinese are smart." Now, this generalization does not overlook fact that there are many Jews and Chinese of mediocre academic merits (and no doubt some who are as dumb as a stump), but it is a rational conclusion based upon observable data." Let's put this red herring to rest. Some people get nervous at generalizations because they think you're somehow saying everyone is the same way. You're not. You're just making a statistical claim. So there shouldn't be any issue here about the bare statistical claims. Yes, there are statistical differences between populations. If you compare lightly and darkly complected people you'll find statistical differences. Let's move on to the exciting part. More in a bit.

[Apollo]

Europeans have a high degree of cultural variation within a geographical area the size of China.

So does Africa.

[Sabertooth]

I always wanted to meet someone who really thinks there was a flood and an Ark and two of every insect, etc. How do you explain the greater variation in Apes? Maybe Noah messed up and brough a whole mess of Apes on the ark?

Sorry, you're barking up the wrong tree. I'm not a literal Creationist.

That said, there's far more convergence between what archaeology tells us about civilization and the Genesis account than naysayers may find comfortable. "The Bible as History" by Werner Keller is a classic comparative study, if a little dated.

If you're interested in a hypothetical discussion on how you could conceivably get greater variation out of two chimps than eight humans, go to the thread linked above at #130.

BTW, are you aware that the Bible does mention that some animals were brought aboard the Ark in numbers higher than a pair? None of them apes, however.

One more thing... in the future, you might want to familiarize yourself a little more with the Bible, archaeology, genetics, and who you're talking to before popping off.

[ThePythonicCow]

Why did Europe conquer Asia ... rather than ...

Being smarter doesn't necessarily make you meaner. My European ancestors have been some of the meanest (most territorially aggressive) in history.

[In veno, veritas]

At least I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[wcbtinman]

"Do all blue eyed people constitute a single race?"

Gee, I dunno. Ever see any blue eyed "African-Americans"?

[Poohbah]

Someone familiar with test scores and Ivy League admission rates might generalize from this and say, "Jews and Chinese are smart."

As someone who's hung around Jewish and Asian (not just Chinese) families in California, I concluded that "Jews and Asians value education on many levels--they will save really hard and do without a lot of luxuries to put at least one of their kids through a better school than they attended, they ride their backsides about getting their homework done, they hire tutors, et cetera."

One of my high school classmates was the son of a RVNAF pilot who got out at the last moment, and came to San Diego. The father worked three jobs, one of them pretty damn menial, to be able to send his six kids to college. He rode them HARD about their studies, and demanded that they also do outside community work (always good on the selection resume), and always pushed them to develop themselves. My classmate graduated near the top of our class only six years later, and went to UCLA; his younger sister received a Congressional appointment to the Air Force Academy (and became the apple of Daddy's eye); the youngest son wound up going to Harvard on a full merit scholarship.

Most kids don't GET that kind of direction from their parents.

[wardaddy]

I certainly don't view it as an accident. Different races have evolved around the planet at varying speeds relative to what we call civilizations. I'm not saying anyone is better or worse but simply different generally based on race and there are of course differences within each race and their repsective sub-groups. Take American Indians and Sub-Saharan Negroes: Neither had the wheel nor a phonetic written alphabet until introduced by an exploring race. Both of those tools are considered defining benchmarks of civilization. Did neither of these groups possess these because of racial discrepancy or because of environmental factors?....that I do not know the answer for. Why for instance are the Mandarins and the Japanese fairly highly evolved and yet Montangards or other isolated highland Asian tribes are not? In that case, it could be because of environmental factors. Why were the Romans and Greeks fairly evolved as well yet the continuing waves of Teutonic tribes spilling over from the steppes would have been considered less evolved?

No doubt determining what differences are racial and what are cultural or simply purely geographic in origin is tough but to ignore simple race as a factor is wishful "what if" thinking.

[LWalk18]

Gee, I dunno. Ever see any blue eyed "African-Americans"? Actually, I have right in my own family.

[glc1173@aol.com]

There is no "biological case" against race. Dobermans, Golden Retrievers, and poodles are all the same species and undoubtably interbreed far more often than European-Americans, blacks, and Asians do - but anyone who's been around dogs much knows that all three breeds (races) of dogs are markedly different both physically and mentally.

Or has anyone forgotten the O.J. trial - at which his black-led legal defense team argued that DNA comparisons had to be made to the same racial group?

Or what about racially-linked genetic diseases - such as sickle-cell anemia?

It is time to tell the truth!