Re: a new topic

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On Fri, 6 Oct 1995, jennifer rebecca boudreaux wrote:

> I would like to introduce a new topic. What is race? Is there a such
> thing as race? Why do you believe this?
>


Okay. In my opinion (humble or not), race does not exist except in the
minds of people. In other words, it is an ideational construct
funtioning to organize phenomena into easily-identifiable packages. We
can call these easily-identifiable packages "essentialist types."
Conversely, a more materialistic view does not group people into races.
Rather, the observed differences between people can be placed on a
continuous spectrum. You can apply this idea to refer to genetic,
somatic, linguistic, and behavioral cultural traits which are usually
used to define "races" or ethnic groups.

- Mike Carson
mcarson@hawaii.edu

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