Can Biology Class Reduce Racism?

[Ana the Ist]

As a single person I prefer the company of other single people over families with small children. Less confusion, more in common. It's a preference thing.

Then it's not a racial preference.

 

[Al Touthentop]

In certain environments where hright improves survival rate....it's the tall people who end up reproducing more often. You qre familiar with evolution, aren't you?

The genes do not change. I am familiar with natural selection. But the people in Japan are short too. They don't have a jungle. Evolution is not happening in the way that Darwin predicted. You breed a tall white guy with a short Japanese woman and she's likely to produce a son or daughter who grows up tall no matter what continent the family moves to.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I think hoping that biology training will solve racism (or any other sort of -ism) is a bit of wishful thinking.

Most -ism's aren't coming from a place of biological ignorance in the US, they're coming from a place of
A) pure irrational tribalism (often in the form of political tribalism or religious tribalism)
B) resistance to the idea of no longer being given preferential or "elevated" societal status over other groups.

There is a subset of the population (while not a majority, and maybe not even a third...but still large enough that they shouldn't be dismissed as 'an insignificant number') that's had the luxury of being put on a pedestal for 150+ years throughout our nation's history. With everything from priority in terms of getting the best jobs, to being able to foist their personal viewpoints on the rest of society with the force of legislation...and just an all around sentiment of "this is our country, it's based on these things that we believe, and if someone doesn't like it, they can take a hike"

As we've seen, they've demonstrated a severe backlash/resistance to the idea they'll no longer be able to dictate to everyone else at that level/degree anymore. Thus the reason the whole "Make America Great Again" catchphrase seemed to resonate with them. They saw that loss of preferential treatment as "America losing its greatness", and view "returning to those old ways" as "return to greatness"

I've often described it as the societal equivalent of "spoiled only child syndrome". When a kid has their way (with nobody interfering with them getting what they want all the time and getting 'special attention'), and another kid comes along, they start to view the concept of "sharing" and "not getting what I want 100% of the time" as an attack on them or some sort of injustice.

"What do you mean I have to share one of my 50 toys with someone else?!?! What do you mean I can't pick out the game we play 100% of the time like I used to?!?! This isn't fair! Everyone hates me! I wish it everything were great again...like back when I could have all the toys and mom & dad wasn't letting my little brother pick which game we play once in a while!"

 

[Tigger45]

 

[Radagast]

I think very few children are tested for their IQ.

No, actually, they often are.

 

[Hank77]

No, actually, they often are.

OK, I can only speak from what I have seen in our school system over the years.

How are they administered and by whom?

 

[Radagast]

OK, I can only speak from what I have seen in our school system over the years.

How are they administered and by whom?

The most common test is, I think, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Wikipedia

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Then it's not a racial preference.

In that case no. In other situations yes.

I rented to many Latinos, and really loved them as tenants. However I didn't socialize with them as only the children spoke English.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Academic achievement differences between ethnicities.

Like what? High school graduation rates?

 

[Ana the Ist]

Racism doesn't have to involve hatred or maleficence. Merely preferring to associate with people that look like yourself is deemed to be racism.

I don't know if that qualifies as racism.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Like what? High school graduation rates?

Test scores.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

I don't know if that qualifies as racism.

It is considered racism re "benign neglect".

 

[grasping the after wind]

It might be an actual study....

It looks like they gathered data beforehand on students' perceptions about the connections between race and genetics. They'll probably train teachers to explain these topics to students....then try to measure if any changes occurred in the students' perceptions of race and genetics.

It sounds like a sociological study...not a scientific one.

Gathering data on perceptions? You are correct that is definitely not scientific. ?Correcting misinformation about genetics is. I certainly hope it will be geneticists or biologists and not sociologists that will be doing the task. Forgive me if I don't trust sociologists to get it right.

 

[grasping the after wind]

He never stated a school was teaching racist pseudoscience about genetic inferiority...

Why is there a need to combat something in schools that is not being taught in schools? If students are not getting misinformation from their teachers then where are they getting it? Where would students be exposed to this pseudoscience that is floating about which essentialsaltes refers to if not in school? Is it something found in video games, popular music or adolescent and teen geared social media? How many young people can be said to have encountered and accepted the premises of this pseudoscience and where is it they would be exposed to it? What exactly does this pseudoscience say on the subject of "genetic inferiority"? I have not heard of this pseudoscience myself ( does it have a name?) so I am completely unaware of how it has influenced the attitudes of young people toward others.

 

[rjs330]

I don't really understand this whole thing. Are they trying to say our genetics are not that much different and therefore we should not be racist? Are they saying our genetics are different so we should not be racist?

Has there been a study done that shows that there are some genetic differences between the races and that shows why we may be different? Or have genetic studies been done that show there really isn't any difference in races except for the color of skin or perhaps other appearance markers?

I don't get what exactly they are wanting to do here.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Academic achievement differences between ethnicities.

There's no reason to think that each ethnicity has the same capacity for academic achievement

 

[Ana the Ist]

Gathering data on perceptions? You are correct that is definitely not scientific. ?Correcting misinformation about genetics is. I certainly hope it will be geneticists or biologists and not sociologists that will be doing the task. Forgive me if I don't trust sociologists to get it right.

Sociology has fallen apart as a field of study....but that doesn't mean that there's no valid research being done.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Why is there a need to combat something in schools that is not being taught in schools?

That's sorta was schools do -- alleviate ignorance.

No teacher is teaching that "you can't get pregnant if you do it standing up", but there is a need to combat that idea in school.

 

[SummerMadness]

That's sorta was schools do -- alleviate ignorance.

No teacher is teaching that "you can't get pregnant if you do it standing up", but there is a need to combat that idea in school.

There are people that argue the world is flat with a more than expected number that believe this pseudoscience. It is not taught in school... I am quite sure no one would have a problem with anyone making sure fundamental ideas like the Earth being spherical are taught in school. The idea that you shouldn't combat ignorance is exactly the problem.

It's like people pushing the idea of ethnic groups having different levels of academic success and this being inherent to their group is the exact reason why education is needed to combat such ridiculous ignorance. Besides biology, there needs to be a better teaching of the scientific method and statistics because I think at the heart of this is too many people not understanding what a null hypothesis (a fundamental idea in science and statistics). If you operate from the belief that racial/ethnic groups are different, then it's easy to see why those same people adhere to racist pseudoscience.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

That's sorta was schools do -- alleviate ignorance.

No teacher is teaching that "you can't get pregnant if you do it standing up", but there is a need to combat that idea in school.

Teacher: "Now children, we're going to learn why abstinence doesn't work; because we know that you are unable to control yourselves. Therefore I'm passing out these cucumbers...