Defining “race” and “racism”
Being noticed by Lawrence Auster brought a few of his followers to this site. A few debates on “race” ensued. What made me curious was his use of the current social-political environment of South Africa to perpetuate the “white fear” agenda. But, I don’t want to really talk about South Africa. What I find concerning is the American concept of “race.” It is not limited to America, but this is where I’m limiting my concern for today. I feel like most people in the United States think “race” or racial classification, is something it is not. (I also do not believe that this blog entry will actually change that, but I’m still doing it for my own sake.) I can start with my conclusion: The social concept of race is not scientific, but does exist as a social classification.
In taxonomy, “race” is used to describe subspecies. All human beings are homo sapiens sapiens. There is no genetic basis for racial classification. I don’t know how many times I have to state this, but apparently, I cannot be overstated. Many people believe human “races” are as different as dogs and cats. Not only is this unfounded, science actually contradicts it. Through genetic mapping, we know that majority of the world population has any variation of “racial genetic makeup.” This has become an alarmingly popular topic recently, as President Obama comes from “mixed parentage.” I read several articles, a few on the Huffington Post, mentioning President Obama “denying his white ancestry” or similar topics. Well, what about the rest of Black America? On average, African Americans are genetically 30% to 60% African. Do they get to claim to be of “mixed parentage” as well? And what of White Americans who have more then 40% African genetic markers? What if someone is 30% Asian, 50% European, and 20% African? I could also go into the fact that these physical traits are not clustered. You can have two siblings with the same parents and two different noses, but the same brow. I really don’t want to go into genetic clustered traits and clines and all of that.
Quite simply: genetics are not like mixing paint, they are more like playing roulette.
