From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@ocean.com.au)
Date: Sat Jan 04 2003 - 03:26:32 MST
Phil wrote:
> I absolutely cannot grasp how anyone who understands
> the implications of true genetic engineering could
> possibly buy into racism... Can anyone explain this?
Yeah its not a great mystery it swings on what different
people mean by racism and in some cases on supersensitivy
and political correctness towards legitimate questions that
may be asked about race.
A recent issue of science magazine, I'll find the source if
anyone wants it, gave a bit of a background into the recent
history of how race is studied, or perhaps more accurately
how researchers have had to deal with the vexed political
aspects of even trying to first meaningfully define what
constitutes a race and then go and study it. For a while useful
research into populations differences was very difficult to do
because of the paranoia over feeding racist notions with facts.
One does not have to be a sexist to recognize there are
differences between men and women, and to be open to the
possibility that there might even be some differences in how
male and female brains are arranged at some level. Or that
nature may have set up the immune systems differently.
Similarly one does not have to be trying to produce a
hierarchy of races to be interested in the extent to which
what is commonly understood as race by the "man on the
street", is actually real.
IE. Racial purity is in most contexts a nonsense. But if
everyone from Africa is black and everyone from Sweden
is white (obvious differences - of no importance to me), then
perhaps there are differences in populations that are of interest.
Eg. Why do some "races" seem to be more susceptible to sickle
cell anaemia? Or why do some "races" seem to do better in
Olympic swimming whilst others do better in the sprint.
Racial groups are inherently interesting because of the slight
physiological differences and varieties and possible useful gene
sets.
Not everyone who wishes to study race is looking to do so for
a nasty or insidious purpose, some scientists are just curious,
others want to understand differences in order to improve on
natures random scheme.
Problem is that its hard to even study race without being
called a racist. In my view that's throwing the baby out with
the bath water.
Regards,
Brett
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