Jazz Insider
Banned
oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus.
99% of all of us is made up of these 6 simple elements. thats it bro.
99% of all of us is made up of these 6 simple elements. thats it bro.
Am I racist?
- Thread starter Beer
- Start date
b_line
Well-Known Member
No, humans do not share 100% the same dna. I have up to 6% Neanderthal dna. It is physically impossible for a person of African descent to have Neanderthal dna. They just were not around Neanderthals 40,000 years ago to mate with them and incorporate their dna. There are important parts of our dna that will allow humans to mate with one another, but to say we all share the same dna is false.
Nobody is saying that humans aren't different - nor is anyone saying that some humans can't be more physically similar to some than others. It's the process of using whatever unique characteristics may exist in order to place people in groups and give the groups different labels. That's entirely dependent upon society. That's what race is.
Jazz Insider
Banned
funny you should use cards as an analogy. it is possible to have a black baby in the scenario you laid out. possible, not probable. kinda like if you were playin cards, and you shuffled the deck very very thoroguhly. then u held the deck face down, and laid down each card 1 by 1. what are the odds you lay the cards down, in chronological order, by suite? very unlikely, right? but impossible? nah.
b_line
Well-Known Member
Ok fine, humans made it up. But if you are saying that it is a societal construct, then you are also saying that humans and turtles are the same thing, only separated by "societal constructs". The point that I orignally made is that a bunch of people were confusing race with culture. Culture is not intrinsic to race, but race is intrinsic to what we are, whether or not it is a societal construct.
Not at all. Stuff can look physically different. Sky, grass, human skin. Calling the sky 'sky' and the grass 'grass' is something that society does itself.
I'm pretty sure I have said specifically that all people are different. Not sure how you are reaching this conclusion.
Someone is born. They have brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. The baby is 'white' only because the baby fits within the pre-existing parameters that society has set for the group of people (race) they call 'white'
Race has nothing to do with hard science anyway. It's an entirely social phenomenon.
Plus, it's not like one field of study is going to say that race is a social construct and then the other is going to be say that it is not. Race is a social construct - and - all people are different and can also look more similar to some people than others. These facts are not mutually exclusive.
b_line
Well-Known Member
no, the baby is what it is because it is a member of that population, not because society told it what it is. Society can not will something into being differnt than it is.
A societal construct, by definition, is something that society labels that has no basis in the natural world. If something has basis in the natural world, i.e. ethnicity, being a member of a population, or race (all three synonymous phrases in my mind) then labeling it is not a societal construct. Racial supremacy is a societal construct, ethnic cleansing is a societal construct, but like you said, heritable traits are not a societal construct.
Plenty of people think the word race is a societal construct because of the negative connotations history has applied to it. But ask them about ethnicity, and not s single persin who understands the meaning of the term societal construct will say ethnicity is a societal construct. Ethnicity, however, is just the politically correct term to reference race.
b_line
Well-Known Member
Saying race has nothing to do with hard science is like saying geology is a social science, and that people made up the difference in granite and basalt. I mean, they have the same elements I them, right? Not too much different, it must be society telling us one is much harder and has been through more processes to become what it is, since it can't be science.
If the baby is 'black' or 'white' then society made it what it is. The group and label just predates the baby. Sure, it is born to be 'black' or 'white' and is part of that population - a population constructed by society.
Jazz Insider
Banned
maybe we're all racialists
b_line
Well-Known Member
What was it before society constructed the population?
Something that probably looks most similar to the rest of the the babies born in that neck of the woods. Race cannot and does not give complete information about the biology of a human being, it just predicts the characteristics that have been picked to define that racial category
b_line
Well-Known Member
If you are going to argue that it is a social construct, then you should at least understand what a social construct is. Societal constructs have no basis in the natural world. The term you seem to be looking for is "label" when describing other things like populations, colors and so forth. Race is only a social construct in that it can have negative connotations, like one race being superior to the others. In the scientific world, the term societal construct is not used to describe words like population, ethnicity, quantity, etc. as those words are describing something that has a basis in the natural world. The idea that society created all these labels and put them on something as a constraint is not consistent with scientific data. There are natural laws that govern these things whether they have labels or not. Gravity, for example, was not invented when an apple hit Newton in the head, but it always existed. Populations will always exist, whether they are rocks or turtles or humans. Race, on the other hand, is debatable depending on the definition you subscribe to.
Darkwing Duck
Well-Known Member
Define the race "black" and the race "white" for me, bline.
Please be specific. One item I want to see is the epidermis melanin percentage required to be black and to be white, since we're talking skin color, and please give visual representation of the one percentage that is black and the one below the threshold that isn't. So if the definition is 68%, show me a person with 68% melanin content who is black and someone with 67% melanin content that is not black. Thank you.
Please be specific. One item I want to see is the epidermis melanin percentage required to be black and to be white, since we're talking skin color, and please give visual representation of the one percentage that is black and the one below the threshold that isn't. So if the definition is 68%, show me a person with 68% melanin content who is black and someone with 67% melanin content that is not black. Thank you.
Darkwing Duck
Well-Known Member
Darkwing Duck
Well-Known Member
Darkwing Duck
Well-Known Member
And the problems arise with assigning race when these two men are NOT of the same race,
And these two people ARE of the same race.
And these two people ARE of the same race.
fishonjazz
Well-Known Member
Contributor
2018 Award Winner
2019 Award Winner
20-21 Award Winner
2022 Award Winner
2023 Award Winner
2024 Award Winner
2025 Award Winner