Comments on: Find me a new term for “race”, please

By: sciphu

sciphu — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:03:55 +0000

Ethnicity is fine too, but again you need to put a group label in front – which could potentially make “ethnicity” equally emotionally charged.

By: yogi-one

yogi-one — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:53:20 +0000

“Ethnicity” is probably a less loaded word. I think Greg’s point is that by and large there are not enough genetic differences to define “races” by. Most Caucasians have lots of African genes and vice versa. Travel back more than a few generations and the nonlocality of a person’s genome becomes very apparent.
I think in your work you are noticing genetic markers that appear with more frequency in certain ethnic groups, so I would use the term ethnicity. In fact, it is already in use on government forms throughout the USA. People are usually asked what ethnicity they identify with, not what race they are. So the term “ethnicity” might make make your paperwork a little easier since you will be using the term already used on government forms and by many corporations.
I think it’s important for two reasons: 1. because genetic markers such as you work with are not devices by which “races” can be defined, and 2. the history of abuse under the banner of racism in this case demands we use a less emotionally charged word.

By: Sergio Stagnaro

Sergio Stagnaro — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:40:35 +0000

Stop using the “term” race because it leads to racism, as well as stop using the “term” science because it leads to scientism…
Like Karl Popper, I am not a slave of the “word”.

By: sciphu

sciphu — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:44:50 +0000

Oh, but you still need to put a group label in front of “ancestry”- would that be too much to handle for politically correct “race”-haters out there ??

By: sciphu

sciphu — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:41:04 +0000

Thank you Andrew. “Ancestry” it is.

By: Andrew Yates

Andrew Yates — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:00:57 +0000

Also, racist is just a fashionable witch term like “atheist” of previous generations. The common use has nothing to do with the actual scientific substance of the belief, but instead represents a collection of negative traits. What does the disbelief in the supernatural have to do with being a evil loner hedonist? What does the understanding of biological human ancestry have to do with being a backwards violent hatemonger?

By: Andrew Yates

Andrew Yates — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:54:18 +0000

Ancestry. “This historic ambiguity is why term “race” has been replaced by “ancestry” to mean “the total inherited character of a population” in human biology.”

http://www.thinkgene.com/there-is-no-such-thing-as-race/