What is race? Does it exist?
Race, as a social construct, is a group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics. First used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century race began to refer to physical (i.e. phenotypical) traits. The term was often used in a general biological taxonomic sense, starting from the 19th century, to denote genetically differentiated human populations defined by phenotype.
Social conceptions and groupings of races vary over time, involving folk taxonomies that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits. Scientists consider biological essentialism obsolete, and generally discourage racial explanations for collective differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits.
Even though there is a broad scientific agreement that essentialist and typological conceptualizations of race are untenable, scientists around the world continue to conceptualize race in widely differing ways, some of which have essentialist implications. While some researchers sometimes use the concept of race to make distinctions among fuzzy sets of traits, others in the scientific community suggest that the idea of race often is used in a naive or simplistic way, and argue that, among humans, race has no taxonomic significance by pointing out that all living humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens, and subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens.
Since the second half of the 20th century, the associations of race with the ideologies and theories that grew out of the work of 19th-century anthropologists and physiologists has led to the use of the word race itself becoming problematic. Although still used in general contexts, race has often been replaced by other words which are less ambiguous and emotionally charged, such as populations, people(s), ethnic groups, or communities, depending on context
To conclude, we're arguing about a non-entity. It might do well to understand about genetic drift first. Jus sayin'.
We're different because of natural selection? It's just genes. Ignorance is no bliss. If people chose to be dumb, there's not much we can do. If you hold an educated opinion, race becomes inconsequential.
Attraction/preference has more to do with genes than psychology. It'a basic mating tendency. Humans are masters of over-complicating matters. Just imagine - if humans were wiped off the planet today, how would the Earth shape up? Less pollution, wildlife become freer, more greenery, global warming normalizes, the Earth recuperates, the air becomes fresher, minerals remain, ecosystem relaxes...
There may be ecological problems because extinction is never positive, but on the long run - it's our social makeup that has destroyed the planet, not our biologies.
Society/social behaviour is constructed. Genes evolve.
To add, humans aren't as free/independent as we like to believe. We're driven by biology. You'd be scared to realize how our decisions have a direct relation with our genes. It's like zombie mode - only rationalized by the presence of a questioning mind. But then again, where do questions come from?
JordanTheGunner wrote:Est83 wrote:F'ckin tabloids.
And unfortunately it's not just a 'dumb ignorant fuck-head UKIP minority vs immigrant' thing. My friend is a painter and decorator, she's a French immigrant herself, and is working in a flat at the moment with an electrician. The Romanian guy doing the work is not just an electrician, oh no! He's also a walking talking encyclopedic reference drone for the Daily Fail, and he shared his views on those damn Muslims who just come here to breed and claim benefits.
No comraderee amongst immigrants either it seems. Sad.
We just need to change our laws and start kicking people out of the country tbh. Although you may not agree with the bandwagon the Romanian is jumping on, he's earned the right to that opinion.
I'm all for attacking those Muslims/Polish/whatever your frickin nationality, if you don't bring anything to the table you're not helping yourself to my plate. There should be a minimum amount of work you should have done by 3/5/10 years and if you don't meet that (without justification) then bam deported/face cuts.
Some worthy reading - going the Mara way:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londinium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_p ... iddle_Ages
Where do we stand now?