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Genetic ancestry tests are a multi-billion dollar industry. In exchange for a sample of genetic material, one receives charts and figures mapping them onto popular concepts of race. The problem with this approach is that although there are minor genetic differences that allow geneticists to trace population migrations, these differences don't support the idea that one can sort races on genetic differences alone. Social scientists have argued that given how race definitions have changed over time and place, that race classifications are more a social construct defined more in terms of geographic proximity and cultural norms than they are based on genetics. At the other end of the spectrum is the concept of genetic essentialism. This views the concept of race as being exclusively defined in terms of genetic makeup and how these differences imbue different races with different inherent abilities or liabilities. Genetic essentialist views promote the concept of genetic exclusivity and reinforces racial stereotypes, underpinning negative policies such as eugenics and apartheid.
The problem with genetic ancestry testing, apart from the privacy issues that we typically see stories about here, is the inconsistency of analysis and popular misconceptions of what the results mean. With tens of millions of people taking these tests every year, an open question has been what effect these results have on people's concepts of race. Some have argued that they are likely to reinforce a genetic essentialist view of race because the results are broken down into distinct groups and people interpret the results as being objective and authoritative. Others have argued the opposite in that people have a more social construct idea of race when the results do not confirm their experience ("All my life I thought I was German, but I found out I'm actually Italian!").
Researchers from the University of British Columbia attempted to answer this question with a paper published in the open access journal Plos One. They conducted a randomized controlled trial where they assembled a group of people who were willing to take a genetic ancestry test and provided half of them with a test. The group was then evaluated to gauge the extent that they supported genetic essentialism ideas. In addition, at the outset the group was also quizzed on their general knowledge of genetics. What the researchers found was that, on average, getting these test results did not change one's views on genetic essentialism; however, when considering a person's overall level of genetics understanding, they found that genetic essentialism ideas were strengthened in people who had lower knowledge of genetics after they received their ancestry test results. "Taking a test thus has a polarizing effect, magnifying differences in essentialist beliefs even further between those with weaker and stronger understandings of the science behind them."
Roth WD, Yaylacı Ş, Jaffe K, Richardson L. (2020) Do genetic ancestry tests increase racial essentialism? Findings from a randomized controlled trial. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0227399. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227399
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @04:58PM (13 children)
Mankind has races. There's NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. It's a proven biological fact that races do indeed exist. We are not special. The human species is not different than dogs or any kind of bird. Please stop the bullshit and DEAL WITH IT.
Some races are stronger, some races are fitter, some races are more intelligent, some races' individues are more group minded. Some races are more inclined to conquer, some are more inclined to art. What is wrong with that? It's the same type of bullshit about how men and women are the fucking same. This has become a religion, and a very stupid one indeed. The different races react differently to drugs, have very different traits and even different instincts, different rates of fertility and are even inclined to eatind different.
The most ironic thing about it is that the fact that some people think it's racist saying that, for example and because it seems to be one of the most offensive facts, **people of color are less intelligent** than other races (even if they are physically superior) only shows the degree of inherent narcissism and sense of superiority of these so called social justice warriors. Why do you think intelligence is THE most important trait? Why is important at all? Because you pertain to a race of moderately intelligent people and you think that you should impose your views, way of life and even your fucking biology to others that are different. FUCK YOU. No different that what has been happening since forever in history. Convert to my religion because yours is wrong. Convert to my sex because yours is wrong. Now convert to my race BECAUSE I DO WANT EVERYONE TO BE MY RACE. Fuck you, really. If that's not the most supreme act of racism and supremacism, what the fuck is it?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @05:51PM (8 children)
No. Actually it is quite the opposite. There are no cluster of genes you can draw a circle around and say "this guy is European or Asian". There are no clear genetic lines between races. For instance, take the abstract from a paper by Brown and Armelagos (Evol. Anthropol. 10:34–40, 2001) sorry, I kept trying to copy the link, but I think there is a redirect going on because I can't seem to get the link to work:
As for dogs, you are talking about breeds, not races. But dogs don't support your argument because breeds have been specifically and carefully genetically modified thorough selective breeding. For instance, this paper [nih.gov] says it better than I can:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @07:04PM
the same thing happened with human races, just much less stringent. everyone knows this to be true. fuck your "everyone is the same" bullshit. i don't have african archaic dna (home erectus, etc). i have neanderthal archaic dna. we might not even be the same subspecies.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @07:10PM (3 children)
The situation with dog breeds is actually quite illustrative of what *actually* happens with the interaction between race and genetics. Dog breeds have been bred for specific traits, and those traits correlate with their appearance, but not necessarily in a causative way. Collies are intelligent, but that's not because they are small-medium size with a long muzzle and a long, textured coat. You could start with mongrel dogs, breed them into something that looks just like a collie over a few centuries, and they wouldn't be any more intelligent than any other dog, unless by chance. Greyhounds, on the other paw, are fast and that's clearly associated with their physical shape. Other dog breeds, like whippets, that resemble greyhounds are also fast.
Similarly human races are also associated with traits, but not in any particular causative way, unless the adaptation directly affects appearance. Tibetans and Peruvians are adapted for high altitude, and there are real genetic changes that help this happen. But that affects their blood and doesn’t have anything to do with their appearance. Africans, on the other hand, are less likely to sunburn, and that makes their skin darker. That's a real genetic change that affects both fitness and race.
Except what happens is that people start claiming "race X is superior in Y way" when Y doesn't have anything to do with the actual conditions that created race X. And cultural effects still dominate. In the Olympics, Norwegians always win the skiing events and Kenyans always win the track events, but if either was "physically superior" they'd win *all* the events. This even happens within a country and on short timescales. 40 years ago there were a lot of African-American players in major league baseball. Now there are many fewer. Genetics didn't change - they *can't* change that fast - but what did happen is that inner city kids quit playing baseball and started playing basketball.
It's ironic that most of the time the race-essentialists seem to think that Europeans are "more intelligent." But Europe is a pretty safe place and has been for centuries. It's easy to survive and reproduce in Europe without being very bright. In Africa, if you aren't on your toes, you might get eaten by a crocodile. European conditions, with the safe environment and well defined social order, are analogous to domesticated animals, and domestic animals are usually less intelligent than their wild counterparts. If race really caused differences in intelligence, it probably wouldn't be the Europeans that benefit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @08:53PM (2 children)
Your assumption of one form of "physical superiority" is illogical. For instance it's not just 'Africans' or even 'Kenyans' that win track events. It's tiny specific ethnic subset of Kenyans. Of all places there was oddly enough an excellent article [theatlantic.com] published on this topic in the Atlantic some years back.
Even more interesting are the studies where they took non-professional high school boys from the Kalenjin tribe (the aforementioned ethnicity within Kenya) and had them train and then compete against life-long professional runners from other nations such as Denmark and Sweden. The high school boys crushed them. The researchers observed numerous ingrained genetic advantages for the Kalenjin boys: high red blood cells, different musculature/bone structures more favorable to running, etc.
You can also find similarly interesting studies on the 'baseball question' such as this [sabr.org] one! In particular modern baseball has changed in a pretty dramatic way. Now the majority of players on any given team are pitchers - a 30% increase from what it was back just in 1990. Black players were generally not pitchers, but outfielders where raw speed and agility are key. Of course you're correct that environmental factors play a role, but it's equally obviously absurd to discount the rather extreme effect genetics has on everything. At this point I feel as though it's akin to those that held onto the idea that the sun (and everything else) was revolving around the Earth, even as obviously observable data proved such a belief plainly false.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @11:22PM (1 child)
" I feel as though it's akin to those that held onto the idea that the sun (and everything else) was revolving around the Earth, even as obviously observable data proved such a belief plainly false"
It's exactly that.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday February 11 2020, @05:11PM
The axis of evil denotes anisotropies in the cosmic background radiation centered in the earth, funnily enough.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @08:17PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landrace [wikipedia.org]
Your not having a clue that something exists, does not in any way hinder it existing.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday February 12 2020, @10:39PM
Eureka! my AI just desumed a factoid:
Yo mom so fat that she belongs to the lardrace.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Bot on Tuesday February 11 2020, @02:16AM
>There are no cluster of genes you can draw a circle around and say "this guy is European or Asian"
So what? to recap this reasoning.
Your claim: genes completely describe an individual which is built according to them (proven false already, IIRC), we haven't decoded the way a guy which is considered by 100% of his peers asian is genetically defined asian, therefore the 100% of his peers that call him asian are talking about an imaginary attribute.
Non sequitur.
I propose an experiment. Call random people "nigger". You will discover a well defined class that will get upset. No, I don't mean every negro, you know, the brown skinned big lipped African partial descent will be upset. But every nigger will. It's like calling Terrone a southerner here. Not every southerner will get upset (almost southerner myself, I won't) but all actual terroni, will. So, Nigger and Terrone make up two sufficiently well defined races. I win, you lose.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @06:11PM (3 children)
Proven biological fact? Okay, then show your work, list your citations, peer reviewed only, please, preferably with DOIs.
We’ll wait.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @06:24PM
But please, don't hold your breath!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @07:07PM (1 child)
if we claim no differences, then we have creationism...
the weight of the difference is dictated by the threat level, and resources...
If i have problems, i kick the neighbour cuz he different...
With more problems, i kick the negro or jew...
In case of alien invasion, i kick the aliens, and stay loyal to my species.
now deal with it, or kill urself =)
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday February 11 2020, @02:22AM
>if we claim no differences, then we have creationism...
darwinism is racism racism is bullshit therefore darwinism is bullshit? this is preposterous because... oh wait I see no logical problems with this. you win.
Account abandoned.