The New York Times has an article that lays out the risk very clearly, it is the EXPECTATION that more research in genetics will indeed prove innate differences in the races in physical and mental attributes. And if there is one thing we can know about the history of science, scientists will find what they look for. Consider this:
“Regardless of any such genetic variation, it is our moral duty to treat all as equal before God and before the law,” Perry Clark, 44, wrote on a New York Times blog. It is not necessary, argued Dr. Clark, a retired neonatologist in Leawood, Kan., who is white, to maintain the pretense that inborn racial differences do not exist.“When was the last time a nonblack sprinter won the Olympic 100 meters?” he asked.
“To say that such differences aren’t real,” Dr. Clark later said in an interview, “is to stick your head in the sand and go blah blah blah blah blah until the band marches by.”
First, to answer the good doctor's question, Alan Welles of Scotland won the Olympic gold medal in 1980. Prior to that, Valery Borzov of the then-Soviet Union won the 100 meters in the 1972 Olympics. Prior to that, Armin Hary of Germany won the 100 meter dash in 1960. 1956? White American Bobby Joe Morrow. To wit, from 1956 to 1980, white men won 4 of 7 100 meter dash Olympic gold medals. Presumably, for the good doctor, all these genetic changes occurred since 1980. MORE.
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From the years that you cited, how many participants were not Caucasian? How many had access to the same training, coaching, equipment and financial support? In other words – I can’t tell from either the Times’ commenter or from your data what the evidence suggests: there simply isn’t enough data to be of use.
Real science doesn’t make the evidence support the hypothesis, Armando, so please don’t apply that spurious attribute to it.
Real science leads where the evidence takes it, and it re-tests and looks critically at generalizability. It is disinterested and skeptical.
It isn’t used to advance one’s agenda, either. A science blog you might really enjoy is called Respectful Insolence. *G* I can’t imagine why you aren’t a contributing editor there!
And the source is a racist blog.
Well, worrying about blog credibility is kind of a waste of effort, but I thought the Times had standards and good juornalistic practices and stuff like that.
Sprinting is a kind of a one dimensional aspect of track. Not too many great black one milers, but many at distances longer than that–but mostly from African countries. What explains this, according to Clark?
Bad things happen when science and culture collide. Scientists need to stick to science and stop trying to come up with social hypotheses from scientific data, particularly in areas in which they have no training, nor expertise.
you can investigate all questions of race.
Understanding Race
(you can answer that “nonblack sprinter” stupidity for yourself at this site btw).
also
Is Race Real? is great.
PBS Series
American Anthropological Association Statement on Race
sorry about the length, but it’s worth posting in its entirety
borzov won because eddie hart and rey robinson were dq’d, when their coach gave them the wrong start times, in a prelim round.
but yes- they will find what they’re looking for. which is not how science is supposed to work.
Genetics is science only to a point.
When you start looking at intelligence and the difference between races it’s pure conjecture and largely relates to a combination of semi-sceintific genetics, sociology and psychology. Psychology and Sociology are fields of discipline that do not lend themselves to scientific testing. Almost Nothing can be proved. Theories cannot be tested on humans because the variables cannot be controlled.
Science requires testing. And the same result (212 degrees for boiling water) has to occur everytime for a “sceintific finding”.
Intelligence has nothing to do with testing. It has to do simply with an organism doing things that are beneficial to themselves. And that can have nothing to do with education. Education is not a requirement for intelligence.
Intelligence is not understood.
The problem with the idea of the difference between the races in terms of intelligence can be summed by Watson, Nobel Prize winner who said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”.
He’s just a crotchey old racist.
Ronald Fisher, Watson, Dawkins, Bell, Sullivan and now Clark
vs Romualdi et al, National Science Foundation/SERC article (2002)
With odds like that, perish the thought of scientific methods of ethnology.
Except these assholes will not let up on rapid genetic recombination theory until people happily volunteer to be subjects of genetic therapies and/or to model phenotypes of the master race, (Indo-Euro/Aryan). Because their centennial agenda is pure politics.