Transracial?

[Bomb#20]

(* I posted quite a few more that unfortunately became inaccessible back when the forum changed from freeratio to talkfreethought.)

But fortunately, recently a lot of stuff has become accessible again. For example: https://frdbarchive.org/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=209686

There are plenty more.

Cool! Thanks. Here's the money shot...

One commonly used measure of genetic distance is called "Fixation Index" or "FST". It's a statistical formula that maps the frequencies of a collection of particular genes in people from two populations into an overall measurement of how different the two gene pools are. Dr. Cavalli-Sforza's team computed fixation indices pairwise for forty-two populations, based on published data about 120 genes. They used a computer to analyze the raw genetic distances and identify the best-fitting tree structure. And one of the subtrees in the resulting tree contained all their European sampled populations (including Lapps, Greeks, Basques, etc.), as well as samples from Iran, the Middle East, North Africa, and two samples from India. The genetic distances were 0.05 or less; the minimum genetic distance to other nodes in the tree was 0.11. In short, the computer recognized what is almost the exact category called "Caucasoid" in traditional pre-PC physical anthropology. How did this happen, if there's no such thing as a biological Caucasian? Coincidence? Social constructs exist only in the brains of human beings. Does the Fixation Index formula mathematically read their minds?

Now, let's not overstate the case here. After all, it's not obvious that Fixation Index is the best way to measure genetic distance. There are bound to be aspects of relationship between populations that aren't captured by that math formula. So maybe some other distance metric should have been used. Cavalli-Sforza also computed distances using a different standard formula for calculating genetic distances, the "Nei distance". This resulted in a different pairwise distance table, and a moderately different tree. However, the tree derived from Nei distances did contain a subtree consisting of exactly the same populations as the Caucasian subtree in the fixation index tree.

Anyone claiming "Caucasian" is a social construct resulting from drawing arbitrary lines across a featureless terrain of human genetic variation has an awful lot of explaining to do.

(Source: "The History and Geography of Human Genes", L.L. Cavalli-Sforza et al, Princeton University Press, 1994)

Here's a write-up on fixation index.

 

[Trausti]

Time + geographic / reproductive separation

 

[Bomb#20]

First Rachel Dolezal claimed to be black to advance herself,...

Within the framework of identity politics, affirmative action, etc, SHOULD we be allowed to change our race?

https://discoversociety.org/2018/04/03/viewpoint-understanding-anti-transgender-feminism/

I find the inherent conflict between feminism and trans fascinating. Somebody born male, and having lived much of their early life as a male, "benefiting from patriarchy", can suddenly switch to female and participate in all of the programs set up to counteract it. Somebody who claims to be gender fluid can simply jump back and forth as the situation benefits them. A system based around group identity faces a challenge when it allows people to transition between groups.

So, we have some disagreement here over if race exists. Do we all agree that gender exists? If so, then it seems gender is a firmer concept than race.

So, if I can get you to regard me as a woman, because I identify as a woman, why can't I get you to regard me as a Latina because I identify as that?

There are a number of differences between race and sex that make the analogy not fit terribly well. Probably the most important is that the biological differences between the sexes are known to affect psychology; racial differences aren't. Moreover, the Y chromosome has relatively little function; most sex differences come from whether you have one X or two; consequently, men and women actually have the genes of the opposite sex. So a gut level conviction that you're trapped in a body of the wrong sex is more psychologically plausible than that you're trapped in a body of the wrong race. So it's natural to suspect a person like Rachel Dolezal of performance art, or of cynically trying to advance herself by gaming the system.