Race

[Thorne]

[I]...it leads to ideas like...
your type haven't the intelligence of 'my race',
your race is not as civilised as 'my kind',
I can tell just by looking at you that your inferiority to me is racial/ biological.

You can be just as cruel and 'racist' by replacing the term 'race' in those statements with the term 'ethnic group'.

Sure, social scientists downplay the term. They are SOCIAL scientists, more interested in social interactions than in biological development. And in social situations the term 'race' can be construed as derogatory or demeaning, if you think of it that way. Try thinking of it in scientific terms, biological, genetic, what-have-you, rather than in social or psychological terms. Biologically the term is quite well defined and bears no connotations of inferiority.

[Pearlgem]

You can be just as cruel and 'racist' by replacing the term 'race' in those statements with the term 'ethnic group'.

Sure, social scientists downplay the term. They are SOCIAL scientists, more interested in social interactions than in biological development. And in social situations the term 'race' can be construed as derogatory or demeaning, if you think of it that way. Try thinking of it in scientific terms, biological, genetic, what-have-you, rather than in social or psychological terms. Biologically the term is quite well defined and bears no connotations of inferiority

It's really not and that's the problem. There are simply no scientifically credible races of human. There are types, characteristics, genetic strains, but not races. And none of this would matter - I don't care about the terms scientists wish to use per se - but when we in the general population use the term 'race' so casually to mean differences, we are wrongly and dangerously, in my opinion, ascribing cultural differences to biological ones. Cultural - you can do something about, if you have the will. Biological - fixed, it's just the way 'they' are.

[Ragoczy]

It's really not and that's the problem. There are simply no scientifically credible races of human. There are types, characteristics, genetic strains, but not races. And none of this would matter - I don't care about the terms scientists wish to use per se - but when we in the general population use the term 'race' so casually to mean differences, we are wrongly and dangerously, in my opinion, ascribing cultural differences to biological ones. Cultural - you can do something about, if you have the will. Biological - fixed, it's just the way 'they' are.

Please read the actual definition of race -- it's simply a subset of a species with a set of identifiable, inheritable genetic traits.

Again, misuse of the term by "scientists" who's studies are demonstrably garbage and follow a flawed methodology aren't relevant to the definition of a word. By concentrating on the definition, rather than the real problem of bigotry and racism, the real problem is ignored and allowed to grow.

It's like repainting the ceiling to cover a water stain but never fixing the roof.