5 ms·
race is a category assigned based on crudely determined heritable traits, but looking at the genetics you don't get the same categories. dark skin is a converge
by r14c 1y ago
race is a category assigned based on crudely determined heritable traits, but looking at the genetics you don't get the same categories. dark skin is a convergent evolutionary trait that comes from living near the equator, you don't need the groups to be related at all for them to arrive at a similar skin tone. the same goes for all skin tones in fact. racial categories actually don't make sense from a biological perspective, but that doesn't mean that traits correlated with race don't exist. the picture is just extremely crude to the point of being useless outside of the political element of providing a visible indicator of caste.
- otterley 1y agoThere are in fact biological differences, some of which lead to disproportionate susceptibility to diseases such as sickle cell disease, Tay-Sachs disease, thalassemia, and Gaucher disease.
- r14c 1y agoi'm not saying that there are no biological differences between different groups of people. you're missing the key point here: race doesn't classify people into genetic groups, it classifies people based on phenotypes that appear in genetically distinct groups. you're also conflating race with heritable traits in general. that's what I'm trying to point out with this example: https://www.npr.org/2009/02/02/100057939/your-family-may-once-have-been-a-different-color https://www.npr.org/2009/02/02/100057939/your-family-may-onc...
- otterley 1y ago> race doesn't classify people into genetic groups Race is the word we use to do exactly that. It's not perfect, but it's what we have.
- r14c 1y agoRace is a word we use to divide society into castes. The genetic component is practically tangential to the concept of race. A much more useful concept is ethnicity
- otterley 1y agoMost people use the terms interchangably.
- prmoustache 1y agomost people *in the USA*.
- tptacek 1y agoMost people misuse these terms (don't get me started on "heritable").
- otterley 1y agoFair! I'm probably guilty of it, myself. My primary quibble was with the idea that groupable variations among humans ("race" being one of them) aren't "real" (as opposed to "imaginary"), not about whether the groupings are correct or properly used.
- kasey_junk 1y agoThe problem with race is that it’s more social convention than science. Read Winston Churchill, he’ll tell you all about the various races of the British isles.
- tptacek 1y agoThey just explained why it isn't, and you didn't engage with their point.