Police Tactics

[Canuckster]

indeed, the term racism is erroneous. Since we are all of the same race to begin with.

it should be culturalism.

[Som-Pong]

Yup. Social and cultural capital, some of us are broke.

[Luigi]

indeed, the term racism is erroneous. Since we are all of the same race to begin with.

it should be culturalism.

Humans have changed a lot in the last 200, 000 years, and even back then we were still different because of interspecies breeding(there were multiple species of humans back then, we still have small amounts of their dna, the degrees of which vary by ancestry/race).

In modern times our thinking has been highly influenced by the postmodern marxist theory that has permeated Western academia. The idea that race is only a social construct is a good example of this. Many of our racial concepts are socially constructed, but the idea of race/ethnicity is also rooted in the fact that there are legitimate genetic differences between humans groups that can be empirically proven with modern DNA analysis.

[Canuckster]

This is true, however, it doesn't apply to the current view on what it means to be a racist. The term doesn't apply literally, but rather culturally.

[Luigi]

I have heard the term racism colloquially used to mean cultural discrimination, but I also often see this pointed out as erroneous with "bigotry" being the suggested correction. Recently Ben Affleck caught a lot of flack for when he called an anti-Salafist a racist.

[Canuckster]

its a non issue, basically its hating someone for no good reason.

small minded bullshit.


but then the PC police came a knocking, then I had to make a point.

[Luigi]

If we are talking about racial discrimination I agree, but "bigotry" is not so simple.

The problem is, people can attack a culture not because they are hateful as is often assumed, but because the culture advocates terrible ideas. e.g. If someone publicly says that West African female genital cutting should be made illegal because it is barbaric and a violation of human rights, they are discriminating against a culture and will likely be called a racist, bigot, etc. This comes from the idea of cultural relativism, which states that no culture is in any way better than any other culture and they are just different equally valid ways of approaching life. This idea is of course conceptually broken. If someone's culture teaches that they should be a tormentor and enjoy the suffering of others, this should never be defended simply because its part of a culture and thus an equally valid as any alternative.

In fact Canadian law in many ways discriminates against many cultures already. e.g. Muslim Canadians can be charged with domestic abuse if they cane their wife for commiting adultery, despite this being the teachings of their religion.

[Masato]

This is a smart discussion, I like everyone's views. Luigi makes a great point too in that last post^

Let me dare a question: how do you react/interpret any notion of a theory of 'root' races?

I remember listening to some wacky ET chick who thought she was from Venus giving a speech about how the different races on earth are actually because originally ET souls from different planets incarnated here in the first days of humans, and the frequency, history, culture and memory of those different planetary soul groups still exists but is getting thinner as we globalize.

I am not going to believe her necessarily lol, but there are other fringe groups now and in the past who have claimed that the different races are indeed somehow unique in their own way from the others at their root, an essential difference beyond just physical traits. This theory does not necessarily condone a ranking of races (ie; superiority), only a recognition that there ARE differences, and supposing why this may be so.

In other words, does the Darwinian model satisfy you as to explaining why we have such obvious and distinct physical characteristics among us?

[Canuckster]

I think our genetic differences are typically the result of generations of people living in a geographical area. While our genetic code does contain some differences, it contains far more similarities. To me it makes sense that the differences arose out of environment,

Stick an Eskimo in Africa or vice versa and see what happens. Or the Japanese women pearl divers or sherpas, have all developed significant differences in themselves yet remain fundamentally the same.

[Luigi]

Good question Mas. Humans have always amazed me because you can have people like Manute Bol and people like Bridget the midget who are physically so drastically different yet the same species. On the flip side there are hundreds of species of beetles who look identical to us yet they are all very genetically different, we truly live in a fascinating world.

Darwinian thought is sufficient if we are only talking about the differences in our genetic code. They have actually mapped the evolution of human dna and there are proposed theories for when these changes took place. Here is a map showing the location of many different dna variants in humans and likely paths they traveled as they evolved:



There is also a social component of race though. Race is also about the story of your ancestors, the hardship they endured to survive, the struggles they faced to improve the lives of their descendants, the sacred rituals they performed, the codes of honor they followed, and the motherlands that raised them and nurtured them. This component, Darwinian thought does not encapsulate.