Delaware students can now choose their own race (Yes, RACE!) under new regulations.

[o_O.Q]

sundin13 said:

o_O.Q said:

1) "Race (in the human context) has always been an assumption that the underlying genetics would mirror certain phenotypic patterns"

the phenotype is the physical expression of your genetics

so by definition there is a connection, it sounds like you are saying that there is no connection here

 

2) " The issue has nothing to do with political correctness, it is simply science working correctly"

the fact that you are denying that the differences i can clearly identify between black people and asian people is why i'm saying this is political correctness

to say that such differences are not biological but socially constructed is to be frank insane

to quote pi guy 

"Modern scholarship views racial categories as socially constructed"

3) "and those outside of said science throwing up their hands because they don't want their worldview disrupted. "

how would anything you posted disrupt my worldview? well despite my assumption on the state of the field of biology?

you haven't posted anything that shows that the characteristics we use to identify different human races are not biological in nature which is the crux of this issue

if you could prove that the differences are really not biological but social then yes that would be earth shattering

 

4) "To conclude, I will first ask, why would it be harmful to move away from skin color based classification systems?"

you have to rather naive to think that simply because you discard a word that people won't continue to behave in accordance with what they see

1) If I've explained it once, I've explained it 100 times. I am not saying that there is no connection, but instead, that phenotypic variation does not necessarily speak to similar variation in genes not controlling for that small subset of characteristics. 

2/3) No, I think that is just you for some reason refusing to understand a point that I've explained 100 times. I have never claimed that skin color is not a genetic trait, only that such small genetic variation is not sufficient to separate the species into distinct races. I don't know why this is so hard to understand. 

4) That is pretty much by definition, a non-argument, which does not address my question.

"that phenotypic variation does not necessarily speak to similar variation in genes not controlling for that small subset of characteristics. "

well we can safely say that 99% of the time a black person has dark skin because of their genetic makeup, that's the point

and again that's one of the factors (all of which are biological) people take into consideration when identifying races

 

" I have never claimed that skin color is not a genetic trait, only that such small genetic variation is not sufficient to separate the species into distinct races."

and yet we do, whenever someone says "black person" everyone understands what they are referring to, which is, a differentiation from a white person or an asian person

you can deny reality but the fact remains that this has happened, is happening and will continue to happen regardless of whether you close your eyes and stick you fingers in your ears

you can play this silly relativistic game with terms all you like but reality remains unchanged

 

" I don't know why this is so hard to understand. "

i understand your argument, i'm just saying that its dumb

me not agreeing with you does not mean that i don't understand what you are saying

 

" That is pretty much by definition, a non-argument, which does not address my question."

our interactions with each other are inexorably linked to appearance, we always take appearance into consideration when we interact with other people

your question relies on the assumption that we can just divorce our perception with regards to how we perceive each other from appearance 

so your question is nonsensical, it doesn't take reality into consideration

there's also other factors like people tending to have an in-group preference with regards to those who look like they do that are all linked right back into this, that you aren't even acknowledging but regardless they do play an integral role in how people interact