[Suntzu]

Another flat Earther!

[Drlee]

More education has a minor effect on IQ. Not enough to explain 70-95 spread.

It may be that higher IQ people in Africa attend college more frequently but then you are simply misstating what the numbers show.

The OP asked a medical question IIR. The answer (and you have had it from a physician and an epidemiologist) is that as a practical matter, when it comes to making initial medical decisions, race is a useful factor for consideration. Who disputes this and why?

[XogGyux]

Maybe we could just find a socially acceptable euphemism for race.

That only solves the problem for about 6 months until racist people adapt the new term and then you are back to square one trying to find yet another term.
Similar to the evolution of:
Imbecile -> Idiot -> Moron - > retard -> developmentally disabled. Whenever people adapt the "clinical" term to be offensive then the world's meaning is changed and derogatory.

Well, there is always quadroon, octoroon, etc. The only problem with race seem to be when describing Negroes.

That is the one that you might be more accustomed to but not the only one.

East Africans and West Africans are as different from each other as Europeans and Asians.

Please quote the relevant study.

[PeterPants]

Its not that race does not exist, its just that race is always an arbitrary labeling system, a methodology. Its not a fundamentally 'real' thing.

The lines between the races are fuzzy to non existent, depending on how you define them.

Earlier, specialized medicines were mentioned, but its not that you have a 'black' specific medicine, its that you have a medicine that works with a particular genetic setup which is generally found within what we arbitrarily choose to label as 'blacks'.

[LV-GUCCI-PRADA-FLEX]

Its not that race does not exist, its just that race is always an arbitrary labeling system, a methodology. Its not a fundamentally 'real' thing.

The lines between the races are fuzzy to non existent, depending on how you define them.

Earlier, specialized medicines were mentioned, but its not that you have a 'black' specific medicine, its that you have a medicine that works with a particular genetic setup which is generally found within what we arbitrarily choose to label as 'blacks'.

Exactly. Race definitely exists. It's just more well defined by culture than any specific gene or group of genes. Race is about how society perceives you to be, not by your genes.

[Godstud]

Yes, Race is a social construct. Scientists will simply label us HUMANS.

[Joka]

Race is evolutionary in terms of genetic environmental and geographical physical make up but it can be a social construct also in terms of cultural beliefs. It is both a social construct and evolutionary simultaneously. It is not one or the other, it's both.

[Godstud]

Race Is a Social Construct, Scientists Argue
Racial categories are weak proxies for genetic diversity and need to be phased out
More than 100 years ago, American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois was concerned that race was being used as a biological explanation for what he understood to be social and cultural differences between different populations of people. He spoke out against the idea of "white" and "black" as discrete groups, claiming that these distinctions ignored the scope of human diversity.
Science would favor Du Bois. Today, the mainstream belief among scientists is that race is a social construct without biological meaning. And yet, you might still open a study on genetics in a major scientific journal and find categories like "white" and "black" being used as biological variables.

So what other variables could be used if the racial concept is thrown out? Pääbo said geography might be a better substitute in regions such as Europe to define "populations" from a genetic perspective. However, he added that, in North America, where the majority of the population has come from different parts of the world during the past 300 years, distinctions like "African Americans" or "European Americans" might still work as a proxy to suggest where a person's major ancestry originated.


And more...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... sts-argue/

[Joka]

Race exists by physical appearance alone which shows geographical and evolutionary divergence.

[Godstud]

Sure, if you want to go against science. Do whatever floats your boat. You believing something doesn't make it true.

You might not that this somewhat agrees with what you said about geography, but you want to make it more than it is.

[Joka]

Sure, if you want to go against science. Do whatever floats your boat. You believing something doesn't make it true.

You might not that this somewhat agrees with what you said about geography, but you want to make it more than it is.

Why do some Europeans have red hair as a genetic mutation whereas other ethnicities don't?

It was a racial genetic mutation that developed in Europe geographically concerning climate and environment.

The same could be said of east Asians for their skin color geographically in Asia or Africans in the continent of Africa. This implies that there is some evolutionary and genetic component to race that has nothing to do with culture or a social construct.

To be sure cultural social constructs have been created around all of that which I do not deny. Like I said before, race is evolutionary and a social construct as it is both simultaneously .

Also, just because something is a social construct doesn't automatically delegitimize it as invalid. Lots of things are social constructs in any given society.

[Godstud]

Adaptation, not mutation. People adapt according to geography. That doesn't mean they are of a different race. Read that article on the link I posted. It's quite clear.

[Joka]

Adaptation, no mutation. People adapt according to geography. That doesn't mean they are of a different race. Read that article on the link I posted. It's quite clear.

There are no mutations in adaptations? Are you so sure?

[Suntzu]

Race exists by physical appearance alone which shows geographical and evolutionary divergence.

No it doesn't I can tell your race from a hair, from you skull, from you blood or from your DNA.

[Potemkin]

Adaptation, no mutation. People adapt according to geography. That doesn't mean they are of a different race. Read that article on the link I posted. It's quite clear.

Joka is right about this, Godstud. Without random genetic mutations as raw material to work on, adaptation cannot occur. Most mutations, of course, are harmful to the organism, and only one mutation out of a million might prove beneficial in improving the adaptation of a species to its environment. The word 'mutation' has therefore acquired negative connotations. But without mutations, there would be no evolution. Humans, in fact, can be thought of as simply being highly mutated fish.

[Suntzu]

The wildlife on the Galapagos demonstrate that creatures can evolve in a much shorter time frame than previously thought.

Modern man is probably less than 100,000 old. Look how different an Eskimo and a East African are.

[anasawad]

There is no such thing as race in scientific perspective.
The only thing that people see different is skin color and that depends on the climate a certain group has been living in, and the changes happens epigenetically not genetically, big difference. These difference are minor but over generations they stack up and thus you see different skin, hair and eye colors being dominant in different groups.
Thats how adaption works.
claiming that race is a genetic construct would be of same meaning as saying races are different species not one. Which is clearly wrong and frankly, stupid. (EDIT: Note here that as mentioned below while genetic diversity does indeed exist in human gene pool it is not as large as some assume it is, its actually quite small and most of the diversity we see in characteristics is due to epigenetics not genetic structures themselves. Basically how those structures are expressed. )
Genetics are different than epigenetics. (as in concepts)
And genetic diversity in human gene pool although plays role but very minor and to some extent insignificant compared to that of epigenetics in what society sees as identifiers of race.

For the IQ strawman that some ignorant people like to bring up to make them feel superior.
Here are some of the factors affecting IQ
http://iqandenvironment.blogspot.com/20 ... -that.html



Anther one :
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 33506.html

[Suntzu]

Only half of scientist recognize the concept, most from the hard sciences. I.Q. is about 68% genetic, the other 38% environmental factors. Race is much more than skin deep.

[anasawad]

Then please do define race for us, enlighten us.

And provide valid evidence for the IQ point.
All studies shows that living conditions and environmental factors plays huge role in brain development and thus IQ level.
While genetics do play a role, but they're not as much as you'd think. Genetics plays role in which zone or level of intellegince you're in.
For example, are you on the average IQ or are you a genius, that is largely affected by genetics.
But disparity within a certain range is mainly due to external factors.

The average IQ is 100 with disparity being mainly 15-20 above or below. This disparity is mainly due to environmental factors.
however, the external factors will not get you above 140 IQ which is genius, nor below 65 which sub-standard IQ. This is where genetics plays role, deciding which level you're in.
If you looked at the map of IQ averages among nations, and looked at a map of income and living standards in the world. You'd notice the two maps match in almost everywhere with each other.

[mikema63]

We always have the same damn argument about this.

Race isn't a useful biological concept, genetic variation between to random individuals of the same "race" is lower than the average variation between two "races".

IQ is purely a test of some useful academic skills and doesn't map to any understanding we have of global intelligence.

90% of you really don't know your ass from your face on the topic of evolution, or biology in general, and you should stop making pronouncements on how it works.