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Originally Posted by farmerjumperdon
Very interesting. So what is this thing we call race then?
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A distinction that isn't based on the human genome, but rather one based on cultural and ethnic groupings. It really comes down to an understanding of our genes vs. what we look like. You have genes in common with all those people you don't look like and they with you. They are a group of people who have some apparent physical features in common, but the genes behind those features of appearance are too few and too inconsistent to identify the group. It's hard to believe because we attribute so much value to the visible differences, but genetically we are overvaluing select features. They have a lot of cultural, ethnic and social features unique to their group. That is the real difference.
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Is it just a bundle of physical characteristics that are more or less likely to show up based on the parents genes? But that gets right back to being based on genetics.
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Genetics, yes, significant, consistent, identifiable groups of genetics, no.
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So if we say we are going to categorize people by skin color, and skin color is determined by genes, and we are going to name these categories races - don't we have races?
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If I looked for the single gene or group of genes that determined that skin color, I would not find it. There is a mix of genes, you have some, I have some, and various groups with various skin colors have different combinations among themselves. Think of it as family lines but not race lines. Imagine your kids are all blonds. Does that make them a different race from your brother's kids who all inherited brunette hair from your sister-in-law? No, because you all have so many genes still in common. The fact the kids look like their siblings but nothing like their cousins isn't enough to make them a different race.
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I guess I'm confused by the fact that skin color is a physical characteristic determined by genetic ancestry, yet you seem to be saying that race is not something that can be defined by physical characteristics.
Gonna have to think on it more later - better get some work done.
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It is hard to understand. The more I explain it, it gets easier to understand. But I had to ask all the same questions you are asking.
The best way I can explain it is with the blood type example. Why don't we consider blood type as defining race? Why not height? How about eye color? We are all a mix of those. Hard as it might be to understand or believe, we are also all a mix of the genes that give us what appear to be racial divides. All humans originated in Africa where we migrated from. Over thousands of years, those that moved north developed lighter and lighter skin. Then as we migrated back down the American continent, again over thousands of years, dark skin again developed near the equatorial zones. But during that time, no human groups were isolated from other human groups long enough to actually achieve a genetically distinct character.