It's Official Obama is running in '08

[Tachikaze]

I am not at all surprised that you support (at least so far) Senator Obama. He is very staunchly on your side of the political perspective on a majority of issues.

When you call race an "illusion," do you mean that race:

a) should be irrelevant as it has no bearing on anything of consequence such as character, intelligence, morality, etc.

b) should be viewed as less than useful since it is nothing but a "social constuction" and is therefore more symptomatic than it is descriptive.

c) a concept without meaning.


I would agree whole-heartedly with "a," would view "b" as correct but not helpful since that can be said of almost any value-laden term, but I would disagree with c).

What say you?

You may have missed a thread in which I explained in detail my reasoning for "illusion".

I would answer both B and C.

I think race is an artificial concept. The lines we draw between racial categories are arbitrary. All "races" are mixed races. There is no pure race. All people are originally from one single ancestral parent and successive generations developed adoptations to various climates. Although large numbers of people share certain characteristics, the lines between populations blur.

Physical characteristics, such as dark skin, epicanthic eyefolds, curly hair, high nosebridges, etc. are shared by multiple races, and not shared by all members of any particular race.

Members within a race have as many differences as members of different races.

Etc.

[Devastatin Dave]

You may have missed a thread in which I explained in detail my reasoning for "illusion".

I would answer both B and C.

I think race is an artificial concept. The lines we draw between racial categories are arbitrary. All "races" are mixed races. There is no pure race. All people are originally from one single ancestral parent and successive generations developed adoptations to various climates. Although large numbers of people share certain characteristics, the lines between populations blur.

Physical characteristics, such as dark skin, epicanthic eyefolds, curly hair, high nosebridges, etc. are shared by multiple races, and not shared by all members of any particular race.

Members within a race have as many differences as members of different races.

Etc.

Then why did you lump all the white people into one race, O' Enlightened One?

[KukriKhan]

watching closely.

[Redleg]

watching closely.

Now that is just freaky. Especially when the left eye blinks.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

You may have missed a thread in which I explained in detail my reasoning for "illusion".

I would answer both B and C.

I think race is an artificial concept. The lines we draw between racial categories are arbitrary. All "races" are mixed races. There is no pure race. All people are originally from one single ancestral parent and successive generations developed adoptations to various climates. Although large numbers of people share certain characteristics, the lines between populations blur.

Physical characteristics, such as dark skin, epicanthic eyefolds, curly hair, high nosebridges, etc. are shared by multiple races, and not shared by all members of any particular race.

Members within a race have as many differences as members of different races.

Etc.

This explanation fits entirely within what I define as category "B." I do think such social constructions are often important as we define our realities through communicative interaction.

On a biological level, you are quite correct. All of these distinctions are inconsistent and shared at least by "outliers" in the other "races." Clear lines of demarcation are approximations at best and insipid at worst. Also, as we know, the percentage of variation genetically is so miniscule as to be statitistically insignificant.

Thanks for catching me up on your take on this.