race (was Re: [asa] Two questions...Ayala's article)

I'm jumping into this in the middle but have to respond on the 1st point below. It is quite obvious that our traditional concept of "race" is almost entirely a social construct. I say "almost" because of course there are physical differences between natives of Africa, Japan & Scandinavia, e.g. But a person whose ancestry is predominantly Scandinavian will be classified as "black" by most Americans if he/she shows significant physical characteristics (particularly skin color) associated
with natives of Africa. Cf. our "first black president", whose ancestry is 50% white. This of course makes no scientific sense.

(My bishop, who was on a visit to our companion synod in South Africa last fall before our election, told of a conversation with an elderly black farmer there who was interested in what was happening in the U.S. "What about this colored boy Obama?" he asked - a doubly un-PC question here but quite correct for South African social constructs. Obama was a "boy" because he was a good deal younger than the farmer & is "colored" in terms of the old apartheid classifications. & for all the bad connotations of those classifications, they are a teensy bit more accurate than our straight black/white distinction. The final touch on this was that the old farmer was a McCain supporter! )

An interesting consequence of our black/white racial distinction is that, with "inter-racial" marriage becoming more and more accepted & common, "whites" are bound to become more and more of a minority. One of the inaccuracies of Star Trek is that by the 24th century "whites" will probably be a much smaller fraction of the population than is portrayed by the crew of the Enterprise. The irony of this is that way "whites" defined race centuries ago will probably lead to the ultimate demise of the "white race".

Shalom
George
http://home.roadrunner.com/~scitheologyglm

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: David Opderbeck
  To: Dick Fischer
  Cc: ASA
  Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 10:56 AM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Two questions...Ayala's article

  Dick said: Our global society is homogenizing that’s right and the subject of race conjures up images of discrimination and slavery and all that. Yes I know. We’re a polite society now.

  I respond: I don't think it has anything to do with "politness." It has to do with truth, and with the lies, distortions and evils that have been perpetrated historically in the name of the false notion of "race." Given the scientific consensus against morphology equating to "race," it seems to me that the view you're trying to take isn't consistent with contemporary science at all. Moroever, I think it has some pernicious roots that can lead to bad consequences. The very ideas about the division of "races" that you're promoting now underwrote the "Christian" theology of African slavery in American south. I don't suggest you buy into that ideology, but I also shudder at a system that perpetuates such ideas.

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Received on Fri Feb 27 11:23:23 2009