Re: What Are the Race Deniers Denying?

Peter Nosko (pete@technologist.com)
22 Nov 96 04:33:08 GMT

frank@clark.net wrote in article <572hcs$mjp@clarknet.clark.net>...
> Peter wants to know the name of the anthropologist who dug up the
skeleton
> found by the Columbia Rive in Washington state. I can't place my hands on
> the Oct. 11 issue of _Science_, but last week's issue (Nov. 15) says that
> on Oct. 19 the Army Corps of Engineers, who have jurisdiction over these
> matters, told the anthropologists at UC at Davis to stop their work and
> hand over the sliver of a bone they took and their lab notes. I recall
> reading that one anthropologist thought the skull looked quite distinctly
> Caucasoid but wanted to *confirm* it with DNA analysis. Anyhow a date of
> 9300 years old is what the Nov. 15 _Science_ says. It also reports the
> Davis lab director as saying, "the results are inconclusive until we can
> do [at least] another sample."

Hmmm. Interesting how "facts" seem to change. Here's the article to which
I responded.

> : >On Sun, 3 Nov 1996 flashm19@mail.idt.net wrote:
> : >>
> : >> I believe it is time for the whites in america to take thier
rightful place
> : > as
> : >> native americans.
> : >
> : >funny you should say that. In Nevada, they recently dug up a
10,000+yr
> : >old body of a native American and it turned out to be European
genetically
> : >rather than the Asian-Indian...
> : >
> : >The scientists said that this body predated the Indian migration here.

So we go from a 10,000+ body found in Nevada and "genetically" determined
to be European, to it being found in Washington, younger, and apparently
subjected to only a visual inspection. This anthropologist must have good
eyes to have made this genetic determination. Perhaps that's why the
results became "inconclusive?"

So let's assume every statement you claim in your version turns out to be
true. What does determining the geographical origin of someone's remains
have to do with attempting to prove that ::race:: is a scientifically
meaningful concept?

> Some good news: "Last month, anthropologists won a court order blocking
> the corps from returning the skeleton before scientists can argue for a
> chance to study it."

By all means, keep us posted on their findings.

> Now may we please stop all the attacks on Bob and get back to the subject
> of this thread. Even if the argument "Bob Whitaker is a bad man;
therefore
> racists do not exist" were valid, we would still not know what it is that
> does not exist!

I might have missed some articles in this thread, but I never saw anyone
deny that race exists. One look at the racism that runs rampant in the USA
(my point of reference), and one can see that the concept of race-- the
underlying basis of racism, is alive and doing well. I believe the race
deniers are denying that race is anything more that a social concept based
on insignificant physical attributes.

Re: Bob; if you're tired of seeing Bob get shot at all the time, you might
want to ask him to stop providing the ammo.

-- 

Peter Nosko

pete@technologist.com

Race is a Pigment of the Imagination

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