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How can people say with a straight face that race doesn't exist?
Europeans have 2% Neanderthal DNA. That's a fact admitted by scientists. Asians have Denisovan DNA by 8-10%. West Africans share 10-20% DNA with an unknown hominid that went extinct. These genetic differences are what makes humans genetically different.
Before you comment, know that chimpanzees share 99% DNA with Humans, that doesn't mean chimpanzees are humans. That 1% makes all the difference. Therefore, small genetic differences between races makes all the difference. It's accurate to say there are separate, genetically distinct human races.
13 Answers
- 4 weeks agoFavorite Answer
@Zirp, are you an idiot or a troll? The 10-20 percent difference lie within what separates Homo sapiens from the extinct hominids. You have used Lewontin fallacy. Of course, the differences are clustered enough to declare them distinct subgroups. The small number of loci which Lewontin used do not vary substantially between races. He used markers such as blood-type which do not respond to selection pressure. When genes vary within a population, despite similar selection pressures, it’s usually because they have little or no selective value. He hardly disproved the reality of race.
In Edwards' words, "most of the information that distinguishes populations is hidden in the correlation structure of the data." These relationships can be extracted using commonly used ordination and cluster analysis techniques. Edwards argued that, even if the probability of misclassifying an individual based on the frequency of alleles at a single locus is as high as 30 percent (as Lewontin reported in 1972), the misclassification probability becomes close to zero if enough loci are studied.
- nineteenthlyLv 74 weeks ago
When you say "Europe", "Asia" etc, you are covering a very large amount of ground and talking about billions of people. The population with the most Neanderthal DNA is in East Asia. I haven't heard about the West Afrikan claim before, so I'll look into it.
There is a link between racism and speciesism, evident in how many humans behave towards other species of ape. Recognise that they have a lot in common with us and genetic differences between humans looks even less significant.
The world population falls first of all into the San versus everyone else, then into a separation of maybe three populations. Beyond that, much of the world outside Afrika is more genetically homogenous than the southern part of that continent, and further attempts to differentiate people genetically leads to the isolation of a fourth community in Asia which has never been considered a separate ethnicity. We are all mongrels.
- 4 weeks ago
Because race denialism has more to do with social dogma than science. They can’t deny it without resorting to Lewontin and Continuum fallacies. Animals that interbreed can be classified. But Human classification is forbidden. Take Zirp, for example. He has ignored all the points that you mentioned. He is repeating his old points like a broken record. Is he not aware that Africans are more prone to sickle cell anemia, Europeans are more prone to Cystic Fibrosis, Ashkenazis with their own medical conditions etc etc?
- Anonymous4 weeks ago
Too many bigots here spreading racist propaganda, just give it a rest and find a new hobby.
- Anonymous4 weeks ago
All Humans are White if you go back far enough. Early Human ancestors started out with White skin according to biologists. dark skin evolved after Humans lost their body fur because naked skin was vulnerable to UV radiation as explained in the out of africa theory. There's nothing pure or original about black Africans. black people have up to 19% genomic contribution from unidentified archaic hominids making them less Human than White people.
- EligiusLv 54 weeks ago
I used to work in the multicultural section of a government department. We had a sign: "There is one human race." Race does exist - but there's only one. The human race.
- ZirpLv 54 weeks ago
Because we know about how chromosomes are passed on and how "crossing over" happens, and that very little purpose-breeding of humans has occurred.
Your numbers are flawed. Chimpanzees have pretty much the same amount of DNA as humans (but our chromosome number two is two separate chromosomes in them). If we all share 99% with chimpanzees, how can asians/africans have 10 % that whites don't have?
Sure, there are genetic differences between individuals and groups of individuals, but those varieties don't neatly stay within the boundaries of any "race". Your skincolour, eyecolour, skullshape and bloodtype say nothing definitive about your allergies or dietary needs, let alone your character.
- Anonymous4 weeks ago
Yes, Humans don’t even belong to the same species. We are a hybridized species with introgression from extinct hominids.
Science is about observing the world, explaining and categorizing things.
But there are some people who don't want to categorize certain things, so they invent pseudo-intellectual fallacies to "disprove" them, like the Continuum fallacy and Lewontin's fallacy
It's the reason colours can be classified and differences measured, despite existing on a spectrum, but race can't. Because the truth doesn't matter, upholding dogma does.
Taxonomy that offends my social dogma = social construct
Taxonomy that doesn't = science
- Anonymous4 weeks ago
The Majority of Black Africans are pure original human DNA and Some Europeans (mankind), slept with whatever..you know that's why, right.
I see the elaborate efforts you put into self delusion but the world knows the truth. We also know Pure Black Africans populated the continents and it took a while before humans that walked out of Africa became the beautiful shades of humans we now see from original DNA..what you slept with is your business.
- Anonymous4 weeks ago
Because, what you are actually talking about is called ethnicity.