/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11369668
I really hope you're trolling, it sounds like you're a teenager who has just discovered this topic for the first time.

I am not a typical /pol/ racist by the way, in fact I think racism is stupid. And yes, there is a ton of genetic diversity WITHIN each racial / ethnic group. But the races do also have some distinct genetic differences from each other. If they didn't, you wouldn't be able to recognise a black person / white person / East Asian person / etc. by their appearance.

Some health conditions are more common in some races than others. Cystic fibrosis is much more common in northern European people than other ethnicities. Sickle cell anaemia is more common in African people than other ethnicities. And "Asian flush" (a genetic condition that causes someone's skin to turn redder with blood when they drink alcohol) is unique to East Asians. Pic related, you can see that 45% of South Chinese people have this condition, and 42% of Japanese people. But 0% of ethnic Europeans have it.

>[T]here is a distinct statistical correlation between gene frequencies and racial categories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_genetics

It's a controversial topic obviously. And I think we should judge each individual on their individual qualities. Like I said, I think racism is dumb. But there are genetic differences between races. Even though each "race" is a fuzzy category. But then again, so are species, and many other categories that humans have. What is the difference between a hill and a mound? Again, fuzzy categories.

>>11337893
I'm not a racist, and I'm not advocating racism at all - I think we should hold everybody to the same standards. Judge an individual on their own character and actions, not on their race, since every individual is different.

BUT races basically do exist biologically. WE CAN SEE IT with our eyes. You could even make software that could do an analysis of photographs of people of different races. For each race, it would show markedly different average results for things like skin colour, hair colour, the shape of different facial features, etc. And the important point is that it would show distinct GROUPINGS of individuals.

E.g., a white-Asian mixed race person would fall in the middle between the white and Asian groups in such an analysis. BUT the number of mixed-race white-Asian people is far lower than the number of white people or Asian people. So you would see distinct clustering in your analysis. Those clusters are races. They probably wouldn't have strictly demarcated lines around them, but neither do many features in nature. Does a hill have a strictly demarcated line where the edge of the hill is? No, the entire surface of the Earth is an undulating surface, and there are no strict lines that demarcate the edges of hills or mountains.

Also these clusters (races) don't just differ in facial appearance. They differ in health conditions. Pic related - "Asian flush" (skin turning red after alcohol consumption) is a genetic condition that is, AFAIK, unique to East Asians. Sickle cell anaemia is much more common in Africans than others, and cystic fibrosis is much more common in northern Europeans than others.

But I don't think we should be racist. Judge people as individuals, because every individual is different. Not every East Asian person has Asian flush, just as an example. The races are only clusters, and within each cluster, there is much variation.

>>11336064
Nobody's saying human races don't exist you fucking moron.

Scientists will often say "populations" to be more politically correct but it's basically the same thing, you fucking moron.

>>10179941
Race is of course real. That's why "Asian flush" is almost exclusive to East Asia (see pic related for a global distribution). If you're unfamiliar, it's a condition where people with a specific gene have a reaction to alcohol - their skin turns red, like a mild rash, and their heart beats faster etc. It is thought that this mutation originated in China a long time ago and spread throughout the East Asian population.

Wikipedia for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction

This phenomenon of different races/ethnicities being more or less susceptible to different health conditions has other examples too. E.g. Africans are much more likely than other groups to have sickle cell disease, and Northern Europeans are much more likely than other groups to have Cystic Fibrosis.

And of course, there's the elephant in the room: our phenotypical differences. Not just skin colour difference, but hair texture difference (e.g. Africans having curly, "afro" hair; East Asians typically having straight, jet black hair), and facial structure difference (e.g. Africans having a wider nose).

Yes it is true that humans are interbreeding, especially in today's globalised world with international travel much more accessible than ever before. But this doesn't mean that race is not a biological phenomenon. Animals of different species can breed: e.g. ligers (hybrid of male lion and female tiger), tigons (hybrid of male tiger and female lion), zorses (hybrid of male zebra and female horse), etc. And some of these offspring can themselves be fertile (often the definition of "species" is given as a population that cannot produce fertile offspring with another species, but this definition is blown apart by some of the fertile hybrids that I mentioned).

See more about the "species problem" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem

So, in summary, race is a biologically real phenomenon. Anybody who claims otherwise is factually incorrect.

>>9259613
>>9259670
So you admit, the races are biological.

The different races are different ancestry groups. Basically, different families - just large families.

There's tons of differences between the races - not just superficial, but also in terms of which diseases we contract too. Asian Flush is unique to East Asians, because it is a mutation that originated in that part of the world, and spread among East Asian people (picture related - prevalence of Asian Flush among different populations).

It absolutely stands to reason that different racial groups, on average, have slightly different qualities, based on our different genetics. It may well be true that Asians have biological differences that make them slightly better - on average - at mathematics and other such things.

>>9132293
>>9132504
No, there are literally people who say "wow you're only concerned about melanin LMAO". And you try and explain "actually, race is about unique ancestries, with many different traits inherited, both cosmetic and much deeper than that too". But they won't look at the issue dispassionately, because they're idiots.

>>9132438
No, race is far more than just visual differences. The different races have different prevalences of diseases, for example. Picture related is the global distribution of "Asian Flush" - a condition that is UNIQUE to East Asians (when they turn red after drinking alcohol). It is thought to have developed as a random mutation in a Chinese man many generations ago. It is also thought that these genes have stuck around because they might also protect against certain diseases.

We have every reason to believe that these genetic racial differences also affect intelligence and other such things. Did you know that Asians have the largest brains on average? And they score the highest on IQ tests. Blacks have the lowest cranial capacities, and score the lowest on IQ tests.

>>9020639
And the fact that the races are genetically different is a fact.

Picture related. This is the worldwide distribution of the genes which cause "Asian flush", a.k.a. "alcohol flush reaction". You'll notice they're almost exclusively found in East Asian populations.

Just one of the many genetic differences that there are among the races.

>>9024944
Why are you incapable of discussing science with rational arguments? You should go back to >>>/b/, if you can't discuss scientific issues rationally then you don't belong here.

>>8819181
>they need different nutritive input
Really? How?

Anyway, pic related is some evidence for the idea that the races are biologically different. The genes that cause "Asian flush" are almost exclusively found in Asian populations. So clearly different races have different genetics, right? Which makes sense, because different races look different, so it must be genetics driving that.

Just wondering what /sci/ thinks about this.