What are race promoters promoting?
Phil Nicholls (pnich@digiworldinc.com)
Sun, 17 Nov 1996 23:10:18 GMT
The concept of race has been abandoned by biologists and even the term
"subspecies" is being used more to identify populations that to
catagorize biological variation. This has nothing to do with any
dark political agenda but rather came about as a consequence of a
refinements in population biology and genetics.
Race is a throwback to the days when taxonomy relied on typology, an
idea itself rooted in philosophy ( Plato's vision of the world of
archtypes or "forms") than biological reality. Population genetics
provides a more meaningful way to approach biological variation within
any species, including our own.
Why, then, do some people insist on keeping racial typology alive?
Given the fact that race is useless as a biological concept and given
the fact that race has no value as a scientific concept and given the
fact that it has been abused and misused throughout history, why do
some people continue to cling to it?
Phil Nicholls
pnich@digiworldinc.com
"To ask a question, you must first know
most of the answer." Robert Sheckley
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