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> Race and ethnicity are sociopolitical constructs. Humans do not have biological races, at least based on modern biological criteria for the identification of
by ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
> Race and ethnicity are sociopolitical constructs. Humans do not have biological races, at least based on modern biological criteria for the identification of geographical races or subspecies.
The first sentence is a liberal shibboleth: it has no more meaning than "colors (of light) are social constructs", or "embryos are sovial constructs." People will go to war over whether and where the lines of "sociopolitival constructs" get drawn...
...and the second sentence is that war, attempting to deny that genetic or biological information can inform sociopolitical categorizations.
- VerminOctopus1 4y agoThe second sentence is a statement of fact in the world of genetics, phylogeny, and taxonomy. Your criticism of it tells me you are not adequately knowledgeable about these areas of science to participate in this conversation at the level required.
- ravel-bar-foo 4y agoI think we're on the same side here. My point is that all three statements are true, but that in the later two cases the otherwise "socially constructed" boundaries are so useful and so meaningful to people that to say they "don't exist" is very odd. There is no clear boundary between blue and green (and some cultures have a word for green-blue), but nobody goes about saying that "colors don't exist." Ditto embryos. Genetics, phylogeny, and taxonomy provide definitions, which are socially constructed based on ground truth and utility for purpose. Each definition is "socially constructed" but to say the categories "don't exist" because they are socially defined is nuts.