Why did the discussion of racial differences become taboo in the west?

Question

racial differences are not just skin deep, things such as physiological, social, ability differences exist, but why do the majority dismiss them as myth?

Answer 1

A growing population of the world and easy transportation of people from different areas has increased the intermarriage of people of all types.  Differences happened in the past from near isolation of people from each other but the reverse is happening now.  A wide variety of people has broken the racial definitions.  Odd, a lot of the people who say there is no race mental differences are also the ones that say there is a wide gender mental differences. @*%#!&^$!!!

Answer 2

I don't know how many racial differances there are, but it is taboo for the same reason that talking about the differances in men and women are- Because we all want to believe we are equally equal. Now this is just not true. Men and women are very differant in ways, men, for example, have much superior spatial abilities than women, and women are much better with studying languages. This is not a bad thing that we are differant from each other. It is taboo because it might show that one group may be better at certain things than another. But that's cool, we should embrace our differances, not try to be the same.

Answer 3

The people that keep telling you that there are social, mental, or other such differences have been lying to you.

Race is a bogus concept. There's no coherent way to divide our species up into races.

We are one species; capable of breeding with any other of our species of the opposite s*x, and producing viable off-spring.

Individuals vary as to their sociability and talents and such, but these variations have nothing to do with the superficial differences that people call "racial."

Thus, we don't discuss it because it's a big fat lie.

http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm

If you're interested in reading what the official position of the American Athropological Association is.

It was the idiotic notion that we're different that led to the death of the man who discovered how to seperate plasma out of blood, thus saving countless lives -- he bled to death because he was a black man, and the Whites Only hospital refused to treat him.

When we started using blood transfusion, people assumed that they had to keep the blood of didfferent races seperate. WRONG. All the blood types are found in all races.

Answer 4

It became very unpopular when the n**i party used it to justify the extermination of inferior races.  There is no reason to assume that significant differences exist because we are all so closely related.

Answer 5

In the vast majority of the scientific community, the concept of race is now seen as outdated. There really are no differences that are clear enough to divide people along racial lines, whether it be physical features, social behavior, etc. There is so much overlap between the races that the old classification system is on it's way out.

Answer 6

The issue isn't necessarily that of race, it is one of culture and of heritage. There are differences in cultural norms, and what is expected and acceptable in different cultures. I would not think that it is necessarily a difference in social ability, but in social expectations.

There are some physiological differences, for example individuals whose ancesters are from particular parts of the world are more suceptible to sicle cell anemia, whereas they are less prone to malaria. Also, physical anthropologists do classify individuals in terms of race, dependant on the types of features they may exhibit skeletally. This is of particular use in identifying individuals who may be a John or Jane Doe.

These differences, cultural and physiological though have nothing at all to do with mental capacity. A large part of the reason for taboos is that in the past people have believed that particular deviant behaviors are inherent in particular "races" and unjustly persecute them or label them as criminal, either because the differences in cultural norms are so great that they become labelled as deviant or because of historical difficulties, they have been at a disadvantage and been more prone to sociological problems.

This said, even physiologically there is no absolute or solid distinction, within any "race" (for lack of a better term) there is more variation within than between these groups. Culturally as well, For example, a person from China, living in and brought up in China would have different cultural expectations than a person who was brought up in the US with their ancestors being from China, though their physiological features may show that they have this heritage. As for physiology, anyone who has ever attempted to determine the "race" of a skull can tell you that the variation within groups is significant.

There are differences between, but also differences within, which makes any assumption anyone makes about a person who may be percieved as being from a different race very precarious and often unjust, and therefore racist.

To deny there are cultural and physiological differences is to deny the beauty of the human "race", but those differences should be celebrated and appreciated not treated as evil or wrong. The history of persecution is why these differences are dismissed as myths, because admitting the difference opens the possibility of renewed persecution.

I hope this makes sense to you.....food for thought anyway.

Answer 7

Because observing a difference is too close to saying one race is better than another, It's much safer to pretend there's no race and no racial difference, in spite of the evidence.

A lot of the 'most variation is within groups' is only correct in limited sense. About 4% of our human only DNA goes toward 'race defining' DNA, so it's not that small a difference.

'Most variation is within groups' is also a misquote from a Lewontin speech dating to the seventies, in the very early days of DNA research. It has now been refuted as 'Lewontin's Fallacy'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewontin's_...

There are racial differences in lifespan, gestation length and other physical factors, not caused by environment. I've had a couple of people get very angry at me for daring to comment on them. Apparently noticing any non-cosmetic difference is wrong.

Answer 8

This is a big annoyance in the scientific world I'm sure.  It's very hard to discuss medical differences which exist by race for example.

The west has tried to eliminate racism (which is a good thing).  But they have gone a bit overboard with it.  I even heard of a case in the USA brought to court because a black person told another black person they were too dark black....this is utter nonsense.

Some supposed differences are a myth it's true (most of these have to do with social development and environmental influences... things like being smarter, more likely to commit crimes, etc).  

But other differences do indeed exist.  For example, black people are physiologically more suited to certain sports due to genetic heritage.