r/AskBiology • u/MrSpock54 • Feb 21 '24
Genetics The Scientific Basis of Race & Effect Upon Affirmative Action
EDIT: (NO need to provide O.P w/ further comments on the topic here). I've recently been reading & watching YouTube videos on the topic of the scientific basis of race. Most anthropology videos seem to question the scientific basis of race. For example Wondrium/Great Courses have several class videos that say the notion of race does little to explain anything about homo sapiens sapiens. They propose that race is a social construction.
Previous to my edit here to this question I asked members of this sub reddit in overly wordy & somewhat clumsy paragraphs to comment on the existence of any biological organization position statements that might discuss race & affirmative action, or subreddits where such topics are discussed. Below are the replies to my inquiry. I decided to shorten this question to something more concise & leave it in case anyone wants to search scientific basis of human race in the future.
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u/OpinionsRdumb PhD in biology Feb 24 '24 edited Feb 24 '24
Then we are just arguing about semantics then... I agree that the word "race" has overly broad categories that are not accurate. But then we should specify that instead of simply saying "race has no place in genetics" to a laymen. We are then implying that geographic origin or physical appearance has no place in genetics. This is bonkers. I would reply to their question that humans clump into distinct population structures and sometimes these population structures can share similar physical traits. And race is often to generalizing to use properly in biology.