Race Does Not Exist

[MamaJo]

I reviewed the movie Skin on my blog (link in the dooglie doo). And it really raises a lot of questions about race. What is it? Does it matter? Does it even exist? My Sunday School class did some studying on this topic as well.

 

Here is the Nova article I also linked in my blog.

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/does-race-exist.html

 

And another I found interesting.

 

http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TB25NTPIESSS0C7N5

 

All scientific signs point to the conclusion that race doesn't exist. The further scientists go in sequencing the genome - the complete catalog of the genetic material found in every human cell - the more they realize there is no biological basis for our most contentious and divisive of social categories.

 

Race has never mattered to me in terms of my relationships with other people but I find is a paradigm shift think in terms of race not even existing.

 

What say you?

[SailorMom]

I believe there are races, but I don't see it as a negative thing, nor do I think they define anyone as a person.

I mean - they don't mean all that much to me, but I find the variety of humanity quite nifty. I think the world would be very boring if we all looked and sounded the same.

[MamaJo]

I believe there are races, but I don't see it as a negative thing, nor do I think they define anyone as a person.

I mean - they don't mean all that much to me, but I find the variety of humanity quite nifty. I think the world would be very boring if we all looked and sounded the same.

 

 

What about the idea that there is no genetic basis for it? I find that fascinating.

[leeannpal]

I believe there are races, but I don't see it as a negative thing, nor do I think they define anyone as a person.

I mean - they don't mean all that much to me, but I find the variety of humanity quite nifty. I think the world would be very boring if we all looked and sounded the same.

I agree with the premise that there aren't any real races. Actually, I don't find this line of thinking unusual. As a Christian, I believe that al humans can be traced back to the original two humans on earth, so, obviously, races developed at a later time, but they did not exist at the time of creation.

[Mrs Mungo]

Would it make much difference if we gave it a different name? Don't we already often refer to cultures versus races?

[MamaJo]

Would it make much difference if we gave it a different name? Don't we already often refer to cultures versus races?

 

 

I think referring to it as cultures is the right direction to move in. There is so much history of racial thinking though that I don't think it will go away over night.

[nono]

It's like the 4/5 oceans argument. There's really only 1.

 

Same with race. There's really only 1 race: human. If we can't reproduce, we're different species. If we can, then we're the same species. All the rest is akin to dog breeding, in my mind. (No offense to dogs, or humans intended :) )

[LucyStoner]

Ethnic groups has long been the more accurate terminology. Obviously, my brother and I are of the same race, born to the same mother. However his ethnic background is different than mine, as his father and my father are of different ethnic groups.

 

Still, racism is still considered the most popular term for bias based on ethnicity and skin color. So that is a little inconsistency.

[WishboneDawn]

I think it's a social construct and rather recent at that. I think if you'd tried to explain it to an Ancient Roman they would have looked at you like you had two heads. Not that they had their own social constructs of course, just that skin colour wasn't such a big deal.

[MamaJo]

I think it's a social construct and rather recent at that. I think if you'd tried to explain it to an Ancient Roman they would have looked at you like you had two heads. Not that they had their own social constructs of course, just that skin colour wasn't such a big deal.

 

 

Interesting. I wonder though if the same would be true in places that were not as ethnically mixed as Rome would have been.

[mcconnellboys]

I think the original anthropological idea of "races" was based on adaptations that over time caused people in different areas of the world to look similar to each other, but different from those in other areas. Those differences were just functional adaptations, however, that allowed people to thrive in different sorts of environments.

 

Now that we are becoming a much more global village and intermarriage between so many different ethnic groups has been occurring over a long span of time, I would think that what were once termed as "racial" differences would be beginning to blur and disappear.

 

We were just reading today that the idea of "race" was used by slave holders to justify what they did, assigning those they enslaved to a "lesser" race than themselves. I don't think that the anthropological idea of race ever intended to suggest that the different "races" of people were different in their DNA or not all descended from common ancestors.... Siberian tigers are different from other tigers, and you see such differences in same species that are separated by very different climate/geography on a regular basis. The longer they've been separated, the greater the differences tend to be....

[Parrothead]

I think the original anthropological idea of "races" was based on adaptations that over time caused people in different areas of the world to look similar to each other, but different from those in other areas. Those differences were just functional adaptations, however, that allowed people to thrive in different sorts of environments.

 

Now that we are becoming a much more global village and intermarriage between so many different ethnic groups has been occurring over a long span of time, I would think that what were once termed as "racial" differences would be beginning to blur and disappear.

 

:iagree:I have my own thoughts about this subject that would take too long to explain. I do agree with Regena's thoughts about the anthropological differences between the thee races. The rest of the difference are tribal/ethnic.