Re: What Are the Race Deniers Denying?

Public Account (someone@uab.edu)
Tue, 12 Nov 1996 12:12:54 -0800

Bob, racial cateogies are determined by the government, and not by
people. For example, Lena Horne and Vanessa Williams are considered
black in the US, but in Latin America or the Caribbean they'd be
considered mulatto or white. The Bell Curve used Us, based racial
classifications, which like the classifiiacations of other countries,
are political and social cultural. If we took the entire spectrum of
human color from blackest to whitest and asked different people to pick
out thwere black eneded and white began, there's no way we could get
different people to agree, as my example with Lean and Vanessa
illistrate. So then, how can you say that IQ is race based when
everyone is so mixed, Most of the established families in America(as in
the entire Western hemisphere) are some blend of white, black, and
Indian. And people in other parts of the world are equaaly mixed, I know
amy black/whites mixtures that could easily pass for Italian or Grteek,
and some lok perfectly white. A case comes to mind in which a medical
student I know said a white patient in the lab he works in went
hysterical when he found out he had suckle cell anemia, a disorder
associated with certain parts of West Africa. This means someone in his
family was West African. The genes responisble for skin color number
somewhere form 3 to 8. Their are millions of genes on a chromosone. So
this man could have gotten the genes for skin color from the white side
of his family, and most other genes could have come from the black side
of his family. My point is there is no genetic basis for race, it's a
socio-cultural phenomena that varies from country to country. It would
make just as much sense to classify Masai, and nothern Europeans in the
same race, because htier bodies produce lactose, an enzyme which breaks
down lactose, and souther Europeans and everyone else in the same race,
because their body lacks this enzyme. The difference in pigemnt between
races has to do with their enviroments, dark skinned people produce
melanin(one simple chemical, like lactose, only melanin is visible),
because thye live enviroments were they need the extra protection.

And you are confuding phenotype with genotype. it's possible for Pat
Buchanan to be genetically cloer to Nelson Mandela than Bill Clinton,
because as I said early, only a hand full of genes are resposible for
skin color.

I'd like to hear your response.