3 ms·

If you’re just discovering that race is a social construct and all of our political bickering is better characterized as tribalism.. well.. that’s not news. But

by dcow 5y ago

If you’re just discovering that race is a social construct and all of our political bickering is better characterized as tribalism.. well.. that’s not news. But reading this article it does appear that there is distinction between some African lineage and essentially everybody else. So maybe there is or was something innately genetic between those two groups? I think the article makes the assertion that modern humans are all the same species.

hnbad 5y ago
Just to clarify: as the article points out with the image from Wikipedia, the distinction of "some African lineage and essentially everybody else" (i.e. the small-ish group of Africans most populations outside Africa can be traced back to versus the genetic diversity within Africa) does not follow racial lines in any meaningful way. Not only are modern humans all the same species, but race lacks any biological coherence unless you draw the lines exclusively between Black African populations and lump everybody else in with one of them -- which probably isn't what most "race realists" had in mind.
Digory 5y ago
For thousands of years, people said ancestry produced meaningful differences between populations. That 'construct' held that infinitesimal differences in ancestry could be used to divide society. So discrimination based on race was widespread, even while science acknowledged the races were the same species. The 2000 story said race is just a social construct, because we were all from the same origin. Here the science now seems to say there are real, scientific ancestry differences. If not visual, they are easily determined. So, again, we return to a place where we can't say we all have the same origin. It will take some effort to avoid returning to the older paradigm, and I'm not sure we've got the tools to do it.

3 ms·

If you’re just discovering that race is a social construct and all of our political bickering is better characterized as tribalism.. well.. that’s not news. But

by dcow 5y ago

hnbad 5y ago
Just to clarify: as the article points out with the image from Wikipedia, the distinction of "some African lineage and essentially everybody else" (i.e. the small-ish group of Africans most populations outside Africa can be traced back to versus the genetic diversity within Africa) does not follow racial lines in any meaningful way. Not only are modern humans all the same species, but race lacks any biological coherence unless you draw the lines exclusively between Black African populations and lump everybody else in with one of them -- which probably isn't what most "race realists" had in mind.
Digory 5y ago
For thousands of years, people said ancestry produced meaningful differences between populations. That 'construct' held that infinitesimal differences in ancestry could be used to divide society. So discrimination based on race was widespread, even while science acknowledged the races were the same species. The 2000 story said race is just a social construct, because we were all from the same origin. Here the science now seems to say there are real, scientific ancestry differences. If not visual, they are easily determined. So, again, we return to a place where we can't say we all have the same origin. It will take some effort to avoid returning to the older paradigm, and I'm not sure we've got the tools to do it.