Slashdot Mirror


User: altar+ego

altar+ego's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
1
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 1

  1. identifying racial differences isn't wrong... on Study Links Genetic Diseases to Intelligence · · Score: 1

    ...but attaching values to those differences can be. I think it's OK to say group A is genetically different from group B, but it becomes dangerous to then draw conclusions on one group being better than the other. We must be careful on attaching value to the differences, even on things that appear clearly "better", like intelligence. Because there are different kinds of intelligence, and societies can value them differently, or perhaps something else (like athletic ability) over intelligence. Clearly there are differences between the races - we can see that just by looking at each other and noting the superficial differences. But political correctness has taught us to assume that the differences are only superficial, effecting our appearances, but not substantial things like ability or intelligence. Sorry, but evolution is blind and doesn't attach value to differences, so it has no method or ability to only allow differences that are asthetic. Years ago I read a sports article in a reputable magazine that suggested that blacks have denser bones than caucasians. This (supposedly) allows them to develop larger muscle masses which allows them to predominate in sports like short sprints, but hinders them in events such as swimming. A casual observation of the racial make-ups of our olympic teams appears to support this, although I have no idea if it is true or not. My point is simply that we should be allowed to entertain such ideas without being accused of racism, but we should also avoid making concluding judgements that one race is better than another because they each have their own strengths (eg sprints VS swimming).