"Racism"

[BmorePat87]

If you had 50 Irish men and 50 Greek men, could you tell the difference between those two groups?


No one is arguing that groups of people do not have genetic variations that make them very different from each other. What is being argued is that lumping these groups together simply because of their skin color has no genetic basing. There is no common gene cluster based on race.

In the US, we can make generalizations because our white population is mostly German or Italian, but those same generalizations will not be true for people outside of those categories. We can make generalizations about our black population because most of them come from West Africa, but those same generalizations will not be true for people outside of those categories.

So why do we ask for race in the US? Because in general it'll identify people as likely being Western European or Western African. Many people, particularly those descendent of enslaved populations, cannot get anymore specific. Lactose intolerance runs in my family, so when I went to the doctor, he asked me if I know my specific ethnicity. He said that the Irish tend to be predisposed to lactose intolerance. The side of my family that is lactose intolerant is my Irish side, not my Italian side. Of course, I could make the claim that it means all white people are, but that would be false.