Opinion: Classification of humans into races 'the biggest mistake in the history of science'

submitted by sproketboy from phys.org

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

The idea that "science" is responsible for classifications of people is the height of arrogance and presumption. People, naturally, categorize others differently from themselves where they feel it relevant. It cannot be denied that morphological trends and differences exist due to local adaptations and population drifts, and the fact these are fuzzy categories subject to different levels of specificity is not an argument for their invalidity. If I want to describe someone I do not know, their appearance is of utmost importance, and my being able to describe them as "East Asian" or "West Asian", or "Black", or "Latino", is useful.

You will note in this same opinion piece they endeavor to suggest that, because the categories are fuzzy, they somehow don't truly exist. However, this is not relevant. Species do not truly exist, they're an abstraction created by human delineation, but nobody is seeking to eliminate species classification. The question is how useful those categories are, to us, to ourselves, exclusively, and that they describe something about reality to be useful. The fact is race, at least in the United States, is exactly just that useful broad geographic correlation to morphology and ancestry, and is in no way "not real" simply because the categories are fuzzy due to population admixture.

I am wholly opposed to this elitist top-down reformation attempt to eliminate utility in language, simply because people in ivory towers have "concerns". That's really what this is. Elitist moral fragility over "concerns" of what you, the poor uneducated masses, would do given the freedom to think the "bad things" they don't like. What next? I cannot describe people as "tall" or "short" because there are gradients of tallness and shortness?

[–]sproketboy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Fine. But you're not addressing the underlying issue the author discusses.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

What do you think I did not address? I am directly rejecting their rejection of classification and their elitist sense of morality driving it. I couldn't care less what anthropologists incorrectly think. A morphological correlation to ancestry is biology. That 80 or 90% of a bunch of educated ignorant pearl clutchers think otherwise is not an "underlying issue".

[–]sproketboy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Look I get it that we got the enlightenment and we also got eugenics from people like you. It's always a trade-off.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The fuck does this have to do with eugenics? Did I even imply it? You don't actually seem to be reading what I write, you're just poisoning the well.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

Human races are no different than dog breeds. The biggest mistake is not systematically improving humanity through selective breeding, or programs that encourage desirable traits to proliferate. High scoring teens should be encouraged and funded to start families before going off to college. Free childcare, a stipend, free college.

It's fucking insane how we are literally watching our societies crumble under regressive forces and we do nothing about it.

[–]sproketboy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Thanks for providing an example of how this was the biggest mistake in the history of science.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I didn't. What exactly are you reading into what I wrote? How else would you classify human races? We can obviously interbreed, yet we clearly have different group characteristics. "breeds" was already taken. I don't see any problem with inventing the term race to distinguish us from animals.

There are a lot of stupid things that have come from racism, intersectionality, and wokeness. But I don't think any of those things originate from, or are contingent on classification.

[–]sproketboy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

How else would you classify human races?

Thanks for providing an example of how this was the biggest mistake in the history of science.

You see it's how we think about it. We can't escape this way of thinking of dividing people up.

When reading roman history you'll realize that they were a true melting pot. They had territories with whites, browns, Arabs and blacks. It didn't much matter though. It was citizen or not citizen (or slave). The German tribes on the northern borders refereed to them as mongrels - which I guess there were actually!

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

First of all finding patterns IS intelligence. The idea that finding a valid pattern is somehow a mistake is wrong. Just because you don't like the implications of this particular pattern doesn't mean you can just pretend that the pattern doesn't exist. That makes you ignorant. Others who are less ignorant will have an advantage over you.

If the woke ideology were anything but retarded it wouldn't have to be enforced with violence. People who hired using false assumptions would suffer for it, and those who didn't would out-compete them naturally. This competition can't be allowed to play out because in reality the all white, or even better the companies that hired based on IQ scores, would clearly win and prove that racial differences matter.

Literally anyone who has any doubt can spend a day going from neighborhood to neighborhood with different demographics. This works really well in Chicago where we have lots of natural segregation. There are lots of Mexican majority neighborhoods, they are all very similar to each other, and they are all different from the black majority neighborhoods and the black majority neighborhoods are all very similar to each other.

The differences correlate far far more to race than to income. There are other factors like income that make differences, but none of them are as powerful a force as race.

[–]sproketboy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Just because you don't like the implications of this particular pattern doesn't mean you can just pretend that the pattern doesn't exist.

I'm not. I'm pointing out that as our civilizations progresses we will inevitably keep opening up these Pandora's boxes. There's no way around it. But at least it answers the Fermi Paradox.

but none of them are as powerful a force as race.

Nah, more powerful is racist Democrat policies implemented for decades. But I guess we beg to differ.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

more powerful is racist Democrat policies implemented for decades

Explain why they don't work then.

[–]sproketboy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They worked great keeping blacks in poverty and dependent on Democrats for their paycheques.