Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: Europan Ocean on 24/12/2017 05:53:00
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I heard of the old world thinking from my granma that some races, were better than others. She liked Germany. I was an Australian boy and looked down on Nazism and Germany. I was impressed by the Allies. I was also by science and was sure no whole race of people had things in common, within reason. Germans thought they were better than the other races as the basis for WW2. Germany was very skilled and clever at engineering... but not morally upright at the time.
I also had a pen friend, and I was disappointed she liked Germany, I had hoped a local boy to her, would be in luck. She said "but Germans are always on time." Which means it seems, ladies from her town think like they did in the 1930s. Disappointing.
England too some held views like this once, maybe even now. Reference to the English as a whole, and Cuthberts and Smiths and Walkers... family names discernment. I heard this from my other granma. There is respect in it but no science I think.
So the question, is such thinking about races scientifically justified?
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To have a scientific discussion of this we need you to define "race".
Good luck.
(Much of what you have written is about culture, rather than anything else.)
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can one race be better than others?
You also need to define "better". Better at what?
Some ethnic groups have genes that allow them to drink milk as adults. Is that better?
Some ethnic groups have genes that allow them to breathe air at higher altitudes. Is that better?
Some ethnic groups have genes that allow them to resist malaria. Is that better?
Some ethnic groups have genes that allow them to metabolise alcohol slower than some other groups. Is that better?
Even within these ethnic groups, these genes are not universal.
And sometimes these genes come with a downside - in one case, malaria resistance comes with a risk of a blood disease (sickle-cell anemia). Is that really better?
The reality is that different ethnic groups have inherited a set of genes that allowed them to survive in a particular environment. But in most cases it has been culture and cooperation that allowed human survival in extreme conditions, rather than genes.
One day it may be possible to select genes from multiple ethnic groups to be spliced into a child. Until then, it is merely an interesting catalogue of worldwide genetic variants.