Quote:
Originally Posted by Hasbinbad
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You're confusing ethnicity with race. "Race" is based on external physical characteristics, primarily skin tone (ex. "whites," "blacks."). It is common knowledge that there is more genetic variation within these arbitrarily assigned groups than when you compare any ethnic group with another.
For an example, I will use arbitrary numbers to illustrate:
When you compare 100 people of Irish Gaelic ethnicity to 100 people of Japanese ethnicity, you find 1,000 genetic markers (usually viral) difference.
When you compare 100 people who are "black" to another 100 people who are "black," you find 2,000 genetic markers (usually viral) difference.
This is because people who are "black" can be from many ethnic groups: various african ethnicities, various central and south american ethnicities, various asian and pacific islander ethnicities may also have the characteristics of "black." Similarly, people who are "white" may be from spain, norway, belarus, etc., all with a high amount of variation between groups.
Ergo, classifying people on the basis of skin color or other external traits is purely subjective, and without any scientific basis.
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No, I'm not. Ethnicity is something else entirely. I'm talking about race -- the genetic differentiation of populations with different regional ancestries. I've posted the links already -- you're free to peruse them. Since you are refusing to accept the legitimate source that you asked for, I'll quote:
"All of Earth's people, according to a new analysis of the genomes of 53 populations, fall into just three genetic groups. They are the products of the first and most important journey our species made -- the walk out of Africa about 70,000 years ago by a small fraction of ancestral Homo sapiens. One group is the African. It contains the descendants of the original humans who emerged in East Africa about 200,000 years ago. The second is the Eurasian, encompassing the natives of Europe, the Middle East and Southwest Asia (east to about Pakistan). The third is the East Asian, the inhabitants of Asia, Japan and Southeast Asia, and -- thanks to the Bering Land Bridge and island-hopping in the South Pacific -- of the Americas and Oceania as well."
That is race, not ethnicity. The other link I posted shows how genetic nuance can be found within these populations. I'll provide another quote.
"The genetic map of Europe bears a clear structural similarity to the geographic map. The major genetic differences are between populations of the north and south (the vertical axis of the map shows north-south differences, the horizontal axis those of east-west). The area assigned to each population reflects the amount of genetic variation in it."
Now, if you choose to use poor racial constructs (ie: White, Black, Asian), then sure: you leave yourself susceptible to uneven results. But if you understand that there are three major subgroups (Eurasian, African, East Asian), and that each subgroup can be broken into smaller "races", then there is clearly a genetic basis for race. A black person from Africa is likely part of a different, identifiable genetic pool than a white person from Germany. An Italian, even, is likely part of a different, identifiable genetic pool than a white person from Finland. Whether or not you choose to identify "Italian" as a race is subjective and, basically, irrelevant. The fact is that, by any accepted definition of race, Italians (as a whole) would be genetically separate from Finns.
There are many genetic bases for race. The fact is that much of the world is lazy with their racial descriptions. White is not a race, we agree. But that doesn't mean that there are no races. Your problem seems to be with lazy racial categorization.