From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 25 2002 - 13:07:52 MDT
Robert wrote:
> So cite the data showing a close proximity between one of these <skin
color, RS> genes
> on the genome map and one or more of the genes responsible for
> intelligence (or any other trait, like height, sports ability, etc.)
> or stop using the term "race" -- it doesn't reflect reality.
### Are you referring to linkage disequilibrium? This wouldn't be relevant
to discussions of race, where group membership is assumed to be by common
ancestry (the in-group vs. the outgroup), and the groups are reproductively
separate.
Even if there was no reproductive separation, there are other ways of
maintaining linkage (or gametic disequilibrium), usually acting during
ontogeny. You might want to go to
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbhdjm/courses/b242/2+Gene/2+Gene.html to see a
discussion of disequilibrium. The close proximity of genes on chromosomes is
only a part of the story, and even with genetic distances of 10 cM it would
take about 20 generations to reduce the disequilibrium by 90% (see graph on
the site above).
The concept of race is scientifically valid, as it allows for example, the
description and analysis of patterns of development in paleoanthropology,
where analysis of mtDNA mutations confirms that appropriately selected
combinations of phenotypic traits do reflect the history of splits, and
migrations that occurred in the last 200 thousand years.
While race itself is a valid and moderately useful scientific concept, its
use in ethical reasoning is largely invalid, as Lee Crocker pointed out,
because it leads to irrational outcomes, harming innocent individuals, and
disagrees with moral symmetry. The statement "You can't derive an ought from
an is" was made in a different context, but it fits here perfectly.
As things are, some superficial traits do correlate with mechanistically
unrelated biochemical traits, e.g. the epicanthic fold and alcohol
dehydrogenase deficiency, because of the common ancestry and reproductive
separation I mentioned.
Rafal
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