One of the modern delusions promoted by behavioural apologists is that race is a social construct. Yet the same people tend to be those promoting “affirmative action” which is a kind of reverse discrimination based on the races which they don’t see existing!
I see race as brute fact of existence which originates in ancestry/genetics and not in social engineering.
…. if races/ethnic groups can be diagnosed with over 99% accuracy by using information from many bits of the genome, then the statement “Race and ethnicity are social constructs, without scientific or biological meaning” is simply wrong. Race and ethnicity, even when diagnosed by individuals themselves, do have scientific biological meaning: namely, they tell us about an individual’s ancestry and where their ancestors probably came from. This is true in the U.S. (this paper) or worldwide (the Rosenberg et al. paper). Further, if you look on a finer scale, as Novembre et al. did, you can even diagnose what part of Europe a European’s ancestors came from (it’s not perfect, of course, but it’s pretty good).
- All visible physical characteristics used to create classification clusters for a race are real and due to ancestry/genetics.
- The physical attributes are brute facts and social construction is of no relevance in their reality.
- A tall person is a tall person because of his height and calling him tall needs no social construct to be invoked. Social engineering does not move a short person into the ranks of the tall race.
- A “child” is a child because of age and “children” are real and not some artificial social construct.
- A black person – irrespective of the hue of his skin – of black ancestry is a black person whatever any social construct may pretend.
- Being blonde or blue-eyed or having curly hair are all characteristics determined by ancestry/genetics. They are never a social construction.
- An Indian of Indian ancestry is a member of the Indian race whatever else any social school may pretend.
- A Chinese of Chinese ancestry is of the Chinese race whatever any social mumbo-jumbo may pretend.
- Blackness or Indianness or Chineseness, which are represented by the cluster of visible physical attributes typical of being a member of the black race, the Indian race or the Chinese race, are brute facts of existence and are not socially engineered.
- Social engineering does not create the physical attributes of people. There is no physical characteristic used in describing race which is not genetic (Skin colour, hair colour and appearance, eye-colour and shape, height and width, ….). Race is never based on clustering according to social characteristics (even if happiness and truthfulness surveys are reported by country).
- That some races of man have been repressed, abused, exploited and badly treated by other races of men is also brute fact.
- The existence of the races themselves is brute fact and not a social construct. The social behaviour or misbehaviour of some races to other races – historically and now – are social constructs.
- Addressing past misbehviour against some races is itself a tacit acknowledgement of the existence of the races.
The races of man are a useful, practical classification of clusters of visible, physical attributes manifested by people at any given time. It is rooted in the primal survival traits of “we” and “them”. It is a convenient classification by how people look. And how they look is genetic not social. The clustering may change over time but rather slowly across generations. The races were slightly different in Roman times but not so very different. There were surely races 100,000 years ago but those would have looked very different to the races we recognize today. At any given time the races recognized are generally based on easily distinguishable characteristics, all of which are a consequence of ancestry/genetics. Whether members of some races are treated well or badly by members of other races may well be of social concern. But the existence of the races is not caused by social construction.
Race is a brute fact and needs no social construction to exist. Or to put it another way, social construction adds no value to the definition of races which have been established by ancestry/genetics.
The k2p blog 