Re: "Racial" medicine

In article <ngco52pp6gd719vo5n0m3svfqmt2f1d2vl@xxxxxxx>,
Matt Silberstein <RemoveThisPrefixmatts2nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 6 May 2006 03:24:05 +0000 (UTC), in talk.origins ,
dmcanzi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Canzi -- non-mailable) in
<e3h4sl$je7$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If a black couple had a white child, you would be surprised and
so, probably, would the husband. Similarly if a white couple had
a black child. So the difference in appearance between people
originating from different regions of the world is a biological
phenomenon. What makes it "invalid"? ...

If you wish to sort on one characteristic, the amount of melanin in
the skin, you can do so easily. It is when you try to associate other
characteristics with that one characteristic that you get serious
problems. Do you think that "race" just means skin color or do you
have something else in mind?

John Wilkins said this: "Race is not geographical variation
of human subpopulations. It is a social construct based on a
social context."

But what he says race isn't -- geographical variation of human
subpopulations -- is exactly what I have long understood the word
"race" to mean, and it would not have occurred to me that most
people who use that word mean something else by it.

So what do most average ordinary people mean when they use the
word "race"? What is the nature of this social construct John
Wilkins speaks of?

--
David Canzi Division of explanatory labour: Science explains the
evidence; religion explains the lack of evidence.

.

Relevant Pages

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