There are races

(Duncan@drmac.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 02 Jan 97 11:26:03 GMT

In article <mbanetE3AJor.I1v@netcom.com> mbanet@netcom.com "David C.
Waters" writes:

> I offer the following questions to test Linnaeus' system and Rushton's
> defense of it:
>
> 1) How or why would the offspring produced by a mated pair of different
> "races" be classified as belonging only to one "race" or the other?
>
> 2) If "race" is indeed a significant biological attribute, then how or why
> is it that the genetic contribution of one race can be completely
> ignored in the case of "interracial" offspring (as applied by the 3 or 4
> races theory)?
>
> 3) How is it that generations of "interracial" offspring of various
> combinations are still classified as belonging to only one (1) of three
> (3) or four (4) racial groups?
>
> David "Thinks that Linneaus' system is too simplistic!" Waters

It may be simplistic, but it is quite consistent. Consider:

Q: how many races?
A: let's have seven: Nasian, Sasian, Seasian, Caucasian, Injun,
Australasian and Negro.

Q: how is an individual assigned a race?
A: using *MULTIPLE* inherited traits.

Q: what now?
A: we measure all these traits in each individual and come up with
a maximum of seven statistical means (i.e. the racial means) for each trait.
For each individual, a vector comprising their "score" for each trait is then
compiled and, on the basis of an overall "score", assign a race.

Q: what about inter-breeds?
A: exactly the same procedure. For instance, the overall score with
the same set of *MULTIPLE* traits applied to a first-generation mulatto still
leads to the individual being classed Negro. For each succeeding generation of
Negro-mulattoes that results from Negro-mulattoes inter-breeding exclusively
with Caucasians, (i.e. quadroons/octaroons/etc.), there is a shift in each
Negro-mulatto's score for each individual trait that brings it closer to the
Caucasian mean for that trait and, ultimately, their overall score leads to
their reclassification as Caucasian (i.e. they "pass for White" in the
vernacular). If there's inter-breeding along the way with <whatever>, there
are still only seven possible outcomes for each individual (i.e. assigned to
one of the seven races on the basis of their overall score with respect to
*MULTIPLE* traits).

---

D. MacMilling

              Just to be different.