jonottawa, on 2016-November-18, 11:18, said:
Just to be clear, I am NOT calling Mike a racist. I am saying that Mike, if he were being intellectually honest and consistent, would call HIMSELF a racist.
You and Kaitlyn do enjoy supporting each other, don't you?
It has become a typical right-wing meme to portray themselves as victims when their views are challenged. Transference is a powerful psychological defence mechanism and you and Kaitlyn are prototypical examples.
Let's see:
my postings show that I believe that one should judge people on how they behave and their character (which we infer from behaviour) and not their 'race'. Hmmmm...not quite sure how that makes me racist, but apparently it does in your mind
my postings show that I think that many conservatives are unaware of the extent of their biases. I have pointed to passages written by Kaitlyn. She in fact has admitted that at least some of her beliefs are not merely unsupported by evidence but in fact contradicted by evidence, yet she still defends those beliefs. She likes to cite anecdotes as facts. Strangely, given that she is so sure she is not racist, such anecdotes are consistent in that blacks and muslims are portrayed as problems.Pointing that out has been described as mounting a virulent attack on her. Odd.
As it happens, I go further in terms of race than I have previously posted. I agree with those biologists and geneticists who say that race is largely a societal construct.
Skin colour, hair texture and appearance, facial appearance are of course the product of genes but there is no scientific basis for inferring that the complexes of genes that govern such superficial traits play any role in such traits as intelligence. 'Races' interbreed readily, much to the horror of many bigots (and not all of those bigots are white: mixed race people are often discriminated against in other cultures). Someone whose ancestors were all from Zambia will look quite differently from someone whose ancestors were all from Kenya, just as someone whose ancestry is entirely Norwegian will look much different from a Spaniard of similar 'pure' descent.
Yet go back far enough, and we all came from a single, small population the descendants of which escaped a 'bottleneck' event that almost led to species extinction. Random variation mediated by natural selection, and geographical/cultural isolation of breeding populations led to the appearance of what we call racial characteristics.
Any attempt to analyze intelligence on a genetic level is confounded by the 'noise' that arises from cultural and socio-economic factors. This has been clearly demonstrated by studies that, for example, show that how well black college students do on math tests in the US is influenced by whether they believe that their scores are being compared only to other blacks or whether whites are also writing the same test. It may seem odd to those of us who have privileged backgrounds (ie most of white North Americans or Western Europeans) but the data is clear: when tested under the former conditions, black students score better than under the latter. It is, I understand, a consequence of systemic prejudice that is so universal that it affects the perceptions of the victims as well as of the perpetrators.
That isn't all that surprising. Victims of many forms of pressure often adapt to and accept the pressure as normal. Witness the Stockholm Syndrome. Witness rape victims blaming themselves. Witness abuse victims staying in the relationship, and so on.
In any event, even if I were to be provided with evidence that race did have some effect on such matters as intelligence or character, it would still be inappropriate to judge any individual or group based on that effect. Similarly with gender or sexual orientation, which are markers that seem to have great significance to many conservatives.
Intelligence is a fuzzy concept. I have scored rather well on IQ tests, LSAT exams and the old 11+ in the UK. I read far faster than anyone I know, as one example of how that manifests in life. But I can't draw or paint to save my life, and I was, to put it kindly, a mediocre athlete. Artistic ability is a form of intelligence and I am well below average in that field. Athletic ability requires significant subconscious brain power. Think about the act of catching a deep fly ball in baseball....the processing that allows a fielder to go to the right spot as soon as the ball is hit. Think about the special awareness of a Wayne Gretzky when he made passes to other players, or found open ice to take a pass.
So no single scale of intelligence is appropriate, but even if it were, and even if one could show that skin colour or race played any role, individual variation far exceeds any group effect, to the point that when assessing any individual, his or her race is statistically insignificant. My own view is that there is no valid basis for concluding that there is ANY effect, but my point is that even if I am mistaken (and in theory it is obviously possible that there is some interrelationship between skin colour or eye shape, etc, and brain efficiency), such cannot be detected due to the enormous impact of such items as socio-economic status, maternal diet and health care, access to education, quality of early childhood home life, etc.
Just as I see no basis for inferring that a black or latino's worth or intelligence or character is influenced in any meaningful way by the genes that create those attributes, I see no basis for inferring that a white person's worth, etc, is influenced by such factors either.
In the face of this, I confess that I am amused and bemused by being called a racist.
Btw, I don't live in China. I don't read or post on Chinese websites. Indeed, I have zero aptitude at different languages (another form of intelligence at which I suck), so am unlikely to do so. However, if I were able to do so, and if a Chinese bigot were to post that whites were inherently inferior due to their race, I would respond to them as I respond to bigots here.
As it is, the only bigots with whom I have interaction are on this forum.
I look forward to learning why it is that an attitude that assumes that 'race' is an irrelevant factor in how one deals with others is evidence of racism. I infer, from what I have read here, that jon and maybe Kaitlyn are of the view that if one denies that whites are superior, or if one alleges that a white person is a bigot, then one is (as Trump's proposed AG once described a white civil rights lawyer) a 'disgrace to my race'.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari
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