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Does race actually exist?[W:115]

Does race actually exist?

  • Yes, humans are divided into different races (white, black, mixed, etc.)

    Votes: 21 46.7%
  • No, we are all the same race

    Votes: 20 44.4%
  • I don't know/other

    Votes: 4 8.9%

  • Total voters
    45

Voltaire X

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This is about RACE, not ethnicity. There is a difference between saying "I am black" and "I am a Kenyan", for instance. I do not believe that race exists. It is a made up social construct that has been historically used to divide people into groups based on what their ethnic origins appear to be. We are all the same species; there are just tendencies in appearance based on the area where one's ancestors lived (which is obviously due to adaptations to the environment).

I am not asking if the social phenomena of "race" exists, rather I am asking if this social phenomena has any basis in reality.
 
I don't believe so. We are one race, one subspecies (homo sapiens sapiens) with several branches of major and minor adaption.
 
Yes, they do and there is nothing wrong with that unless you don't try to exterminate (lower) races or one races is developing at the expense of another.
But we are all humans, that's for sure.
 
I don't believe so. We are one race, one subspecies (homo sapiens sapiens) with several branches of major and minor adaption.

consider the presence of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans. every group of modern humans with the exception of sub-saharan Africans has anywhere from 2-4% neanderthal DNA in their genetic make-up. Stuides have shown that this neanderthal DNA contributes to a wide variety of characteristics ranging from hair and skin color to resistance to certain diseases.

question: is that 2-4% difference in DNA enough to consider those who have it and those who do not to be separate "races"?
 
Biologically? No. Socially? Yes. Social constructions are ​ reality. Strip away one conception, uphold another, there's your reality.
 
question: is that 2-4% difference in DNA enough to consider those who have it and those who do not to be separate "races"?

Humans and pigs have very similar DNA. Does that mean we are pigs? No!
 
question: is that 2-4% difference in DNA enough to consider those who have it and those who do not to be separate "races"?


Uh-oh.... Geeeez.... ya' think they'll sue for equal rights ?

There's trouble right here in River City, it starts with -G- and ends with -E- ....
and its name is Gene ... Pool.

Lawdy, Lawdy

Thom Paine
 
We're all the same species, but there are different races.

You get species-> subspecies (races) -> ethnicities.

Homo Sapiens -> european / african / east asian / etc -> briton, norman, basque / kenyan, ethiopian / han chinesse, cantonesse /etc.

The genetic differences between each racial group is anywhere between 1-> 1.5% according to whatever studies you follow.

This is also valid in pre-sapien ancestry. For instance, it is just people whose ancestors were in Europe, the mediterraanian basin and west and central middle east that have homo neanderthalis genes... africans and east asians don't have them, they have other ancestry... because neanderthals didn't live elsewhere. So neanderthals aren't the ancestor of homo sapiens, just one of the ancestors of europeans and semitic people.

So races are real but that doesn't make people less human. We're all human -> homo sapiens. But ignoring racial differences is not the key to "ending racism", it's the key to ignorance... you need to understand and accept racial differences as being there. For crying out loud, doctors accept them, that's why you have race related medications for certain diseases... so yeah.

Really, i wouldn't worry to much about it. Race is not a determining factor in the personality or characteristic of someone unless he makes it so and those people are racists.

So if being of a particular race is something that defines you in say, your top 5... then you are a very sad person because you don't have a lot of things going for you and you should pick up a hobby or two or get out more.
 
Humans and pigs have very similar DNA. Does that mean we are pigs? No!

so, what you are saying is that differences in DNA do matter.....

I simply asked a question based on scientific data, no need to get all defensive about it.....

edit: FWIW, humans and chimps have ~98% of the same DNA. That 2% difference is enough to make one a human and one a chimp. is it so unreasonable to think that a 2-4% difference in DNA among humans would not result in different "races"?
 
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Yes, much the same as there are breeds of dogs. The ability to interbreed neither makes dogs into a single breed nor humans into a single race.
 
Race and gender only matter to Leftists. ;)
 
so, what you are saying is that differences in DNA do matter.....

They do. But the more important are the differences in "social DNA". There is nothing more ridiculous to equate an Oxford professor and a filthy gypsy.

I simply asked a question based on scientific data, no need to get all defensive about it.....

O'key. :)
 
There really are no distinct races, there is a continuum of ethnicities, there is no such thing as a "pure race", etc. People aren't nearly as special as they'd like to believe.
 
They do. But the more important are the differences in "social DNA". There is nothing more ridiculous to equate an Oxford professor and a filthy gypsy.

no one ever tries to equate JFK and Jeff Dalmer, but they were both "white guys".
 
There really are no distinct races, there is a continuum of ethnicities, there is no such thing as a "pure race", etc. People aren't nearly as special as they'd like to believe.

you've apparently never been to park lake city Utah. those people are as white as you can possibly get.... ;)
 
you've apparently never been to park lake city Utah. those people are as white as you can possibly get.... ;)

But if there were DNA tests done, they're not going to be as white as they think.
 
To put things in perspective, there have been studies where the mass majority of Americans have falsely identified someone as black when they are less than 10% African in actuality.
 
Humans have different phenotypes and ethnicities within the same species, and among those ethnicities there is still a great deal of diversity and individual lineage genetics happening. In other words, some families have their own sort of ethnicity happening, within the larger ethnic group. It's funny because among racists, they assume that someone of their skin color is the same as them when really their ideological sub-group of same-skinned people could be as genetically different as Chinese vs. Indian.

Race is a social construct that exists across all human societies where many mistake difference in appearance with a difference in speciation. I guess I can't fault those people for their ignorance because human cultures can be so vastly different across the planet that it's sometimes hard to reconcile that without jumping to conclusions. However, once ignorance is allayed there is no excuse.

There is some controversial info out there which, for now, contradicts this paradigm of thinking a little bit, but I would rather not mention it here. It's more of a scientific curiosity than it is a groundbreaking thing and I don't want to give racists any ammo. Ideally, an evolved society should be able to have harmonious interaction among all its different conscious parts, regardless of appearance.
 
There is only one race...the human race.

Calling someone a different 'race' because one person has more or less melanin in their skin is about as ignorant as it gets, imo.
 
But if there were DNA tests done, they're not going to be as white as they think.

but if DNA tests were done, they'd show neanderthal DNA whereas a sub-saharan african's would not...

that was my question. is the presence or absence of neanderthal DNA enough of a difference to consider those with it a separate "race" than those without?

I'm not, in any way, suggesting that one is superior to the other. merely that they are different. are they different enough to be considered distinct races?
 
There is only one race...the human race.

Calling someone a different 'race' because one person has more or less melanin in their skin is about as ignorant as it gets, imo.

and therein lies the problem. "race" isn't just about skin color.
 
This is about RACE, not ethnicity. There is a difference between saying "I am black" and "I am a Kenyan", for instance. I do not believe that race exists. It is a made up social construct that has been historically used to divide people into groups based on what their ethnic origins appear to be. We are all the same species; there are just tendencies in appearance based on the area where one's ancestors lived (which is obviously due to adaptations to the environment).

I am not asking if the social phenomena of "race" exists, rather I am asking if this social phenomena has any basis in reality.

Yes, race as more than a social construct exists. Both on a gross physical level and on a genetic one.
 
Depends how you define race, as an artificial construct of geographically-based phenotypic expression, sure, it's real. But there is no human population that is more genetically similar within the population than without it.
 
and therein lies the problem. "race" isn't just about skin color.

It is to many people.

And that is not the problem.

The problem is stupid and/or ignorant people classifying people as different 'races' due to physical characteristics...whatever they are.

There is only one 'race' - the human race.

If you or anyone disagrees?

Then you/they ARE wrong...period.
 
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