From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Jan 04 2003 - 02:40:23 MST
Phil writes
> I absolutely cannot grasp how anyone who understands
> the implications of true genetic engineering could
> possibly buy into racism... Can anyone explain this?
Okay, here is my best shot. A black racist says to a
formerly white person, "You may be black on the outside,
but you are still white on the inside! You be a *real*
oreo! Until you convert all your cultural baggage from
white to black, I'll never quite see you as black."
To me, this argument fails because if one thinks that
there is a lot of *genetic* variance within a group,
one has not thought about how much *cultural* variance
there is. Moreover, I don't believe that there is a
"white" way of looking at things that is different from
a "black" or "Hispanic" way of looking at the world.
> If you can BE Hitler, or Greta Garbo, or Iman, or
> Mother Theresa - as far as your genes and eventual
> physical appearance goes, and as far as all that
> influences your temperament, etc., then of what
> possible importance could it be that once you were
> black or male or female or human....??? Genetic
> engineering is the absolute and final death of racism.
Yes, and your thought experiment is quite fun. And just
how would a racist react to someone made over into his
or her own race? This occurs in the latest James Bond
movie, "Die Another Day" in which an Asian man is made
over into a Caucasian. But they never answered the
question whether or not he remained inscrutable.
Lee
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