My speciality is not physical anthropology or genetics. I am a cultural geographer and focus my research on the evolution of the nation-state, geo-strategy, migration and ethnic conflict.

From the “soft science” side, the idea of racial differences is profound. Just try and tell a Croatian and Serbian that they have more in common than the differences that divide them. The former country of Sudan is another example of where race (as perceived by the participants) and religion caused a nation-state to disintegrate.

I could offer no compelling scientific evidence for race, nor would I be qualified to do so. However, in my studies and travels, the IDEA of racial and ethnic differences is compelling among most of the worlds population and that idea drives behavior.

In conclusion, whether I “believe” or not is irrelevant. People act as if its true and base their actions on the perception that race and ethnicity is real, scientific validation notwithstanding.

Kiwiwriter, you are welcome to copy my comment, link to it, whatever you like.

Jason Smith, are you listening?

At the core, I think the sort of racism exhibited by Jason, and in fact, racists of all sorts, is rooted entirely in a lack of empathy.

Jason Smith cannot imagine having been born black. His whiteness is so much a part of his identity, that it is simply impossible for him to consider a world where he did not win the genetic lottery and have the good luck to have been born the ‘correct’ race.

In a racist’s world, people are defined entirely by their genetics; there is no role for culture, sociology, and many other things to make a mark on their behavior. And furthermore, all undesirable social traits are mysteriously connected with skin color. For Jason, whites are simply genetically superior to blacks in all ways, it seems.

Now, I am willing to grant Jason, for the sake of argument, that there are certain physiological differences between different populations of humans. However, that does not make his racism any more intellectually defensible, even if that is true. Quite simply, all humans, regardless of their genetic advantages, disadvantages, and neutral genetic traits deserve respect, dignity, liberty, and equality of opportunity. This is the basic tenet of the hated anti-racist liberal that Jason so demonizes. We do not believe that someone who happens to be born white is inherently any better than someone who happens to be born black.

And that is exactly the thesis that the racist denies. But just how far are people like Jason committed to this? After all, if we’re going to pick out genetic features like skin color as undesirable, why not other things? Should we begin to discriminate against people with perceived genetic disadvantages in general? Are women inferior to men, too, Jason? Is Stephen Hawking less of a person because of his genetic condition?

Quite simply, all of these things, race, gender, healthiness, resistance or susceptibility to various diseases, healthiness or disability, are all genetic accidents. Just because someone came out on top in the genetic lottery does not entitle them to preferential treatment in every facet of life. This is why racism, sexism, and all forms of prejudice are so deeply offensive to so many people.

Let me close on this note. Jason, it’s perfectly okay if you dislike many aspects of the black subculture in America. It’s also perfectly fine if you think that some black people commit crimes and are overall bad people. What’s not okay is for you to believe that black people are intrinsically inferior to white people, and not deserving of the same consideration and equality as human beings, just because of the genetic hand they were dealt when they were born. It’s not okay for you to judge one person by the acts of another, when the only connection between the two is the color of their skin. That is the line. What we ‘evil’ liberals want is a society in which everyone is judged as an individual, rather than based on their genetics, or their parentage, or whatever other irrelevant factor.

Please see If race isn’t biological, how do forensics investigators determine a person’s race using just their bones or a fragment of their DNA?

None of this will matter to you, of course. Rushton said it, you believe it, that settles it. Right?

Ooh, blacks are inferior because they have different mandibles and menstruation times. We should segregate our society based on when girls have that time of the mont for the first time.

Calling Jason a “racist” does’t offend him, because he is proud to be one. He’s proud to show us how narrow his education and study is.

Would he be offended if I call him what he is, a bloody fool, and a Holocaust denier, who lives in a world of fear and anger, like most WNs.

Also, Jason, your other analogies don’t fit:

Car sales: If a car dealer tries the ol’ bait and switch on you, you can always find another car dealer. Unless you develop space travel, you’re stuck with living on one planet with all of its people.

Norman Rockwell: He supported diversity in his “Four Freedoms” painting series and the Allied cause in many others, which liberated the concentration camps and ended the Holocaust you deny. So for you to wnat your life like Normal Rockwell envisioned it, you have to support the values of the Allies in liberating Europe and ending the Holocaust, which are diametrically opposed to the neo-Nazi position that the Holocaust never happened.

Jason, you come here and troll, amuse us all, and get smacked down, to the point that you have to use silly arguments and re-typed obscenities. Fail.

Why are you so fearful of blacks and Latinos? The vast majority of America’s white population lives, works, and plays in close proximity to them in peace and quiet.

If life is too scary for you, comedian Denis Leary has a simple answer, that I quote, “Life is hard. Get a helmet.” Deal with it. You’ll find that the differences between blacks and whites, at the core, are pretty superficial.

You really have read too much American Renaissance website. I don’t know how you got into the roach motel of White Nationalism, but you won’t create your white utopia — particularly by coming here — but you may get chewed up and destroyed by it.

Amongst the general population, this debate assumes ideological versus empirical dimensions, becomes a shouting contest in a room full of deaf people and is just about impossible to talk about unless it is in a closed, private forum of intellectuals who devote their lives to researching both schools of thought.

It is impossible for the pluralist neo liberal to accept HBD, just as it is equally impossible for xenophobic nativists to accept anything else. The science is ignored, inconvenient truths are ignored, and the opposing camps engage in a cold war of sorts that is more about eventual victory than truth.

I am neither a scientist, anthropologist or geneticist. But I have been privileged to stand in and interview many in both schools. The science is on the side of HBD, but the debate within that school is degree of effect and amelioration of environmental influences on gene activation and expression.

Amongst the shouting, what is forgotten is that perception of reality counts for a lot in human group behavior. If you BELIEVE race exists, it does, and no amount of hand wringing on the part of those that deny its existence or importance in determining human behavior will alter that.

Tell us who “the races” are. Tread lightly.

Of course geographically speaking there are physiological differences between groups of people, but this is not the same as saying that there are supra-national groups called “races.” If you walked from Kenya all the way to Sweden, you would find a sort of gradation among the people you would see, from Sub-Saharan African(BTW, Africans are extremely diverse on a genetic level), to the more Semitic-looking Somalis, to the Arabs and Turks, then Albanians, Serbs, Croats, and finally ending with the Nordic Norwegians and Danes.

Secondly,the genetic traits which give us these physiological attributes have nothing to do with brain capacity, intelligence, talent, behavior, and so on.

I inherited a library of over 3,000 books. I’m not lacking for reading. You’re simply lacking for brains.

“Your problem is you are uneducated. You need to read some books”

“But not just any books. The books have to be by J. Philippe Rushton and you have to ignore all the evidence that reveals them as racialist pseudoscience. Once you do this, you’ll be smart and happy, like me!”

I want to live in a society that looks like a Normal Rockwell Painting. A White society.

Sounds like you better emigrate to Tristan da Cunha. ‘Cause you’re not gonna get what you want here, thank heavens.

Did someone try to get you fired from your job for being racist? That must have sucked for you. Think about how much it sucks for black and Latino applicants who get rejected based on racial grounds alone. There’s plenty of evidence to show this happens on a large scale.

” Shouting “racist!” as a pejorative doesn’t work on me. You better come up with something else.”

Ok, how about ignorant? Or do you still entertain the delusion that we can’t tell?

-It seems your taking our earlier advice about speaking with that all-knowing man in the mirror, Jason! Good for you, but make sure to read more books by people that aren’t telling you either what you already know or choosed to be biased about (regardless of the greater ‘Truth’). Nobody ever won a Nobel Prize for reciting what 2+2 equals…

ITHINK’s response: yeah, I found that book a lot more interesting and surprising in its original form, I believe it was called “Mein Kampf” and was under some maniacal ghost writer named ‘Adolf Hitler’. He apparently thought his writing to be so profoundly realistic that he actually ended up committing suicide as he couldn’t sustain the crippling authority and supremacism of his own ‘final solutions’. ‘Twas a sad day in history (for the Pat Buchanans & David Dukes of the world, anyway)…

“Penultimate” means next-to-last.

“It is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”