"To reduce the entirety of society to a stack ranking of various groups by IQ oversimplifies..."
Yan, for some people, the entire point is oversimplification. I cannot think of a more distinct example of oversimplification than race. Can you?
How many "races" are there? Do we even agree about that? What is race based on? For most people, it's skin color and hair texture. We say "Black" and "White". Two *colors* for Pete's sake. Then we add "Asian"--a continent.
Then we hear people say that "Indian" is not really "Asian". Then we have Jews, which is first and foremost a religion and a culture, but somehow they are also a "race", which happens to be full of many different skin colors and hair textures. Kinda like "Hispanics" and "Latinos", another "race", but one based around a language and a hemisphere. It's a crazy system when we dare to think about it.
What about "biracial" people? Or "quad-racial" people? I could go on.
But why are so many people so desperately locked into this idea? I think it's mostly about emotion, and ultimately irrational. But the world bought into the concept of race about 500 years ago and thus, it's "real" because people believe it to be real.
Some people think race is so real/important that they're fighting for "racial purity" (and they honestly think it's achievable in some way).
Even when they realize it is not, they continue to act like it is. Why? Because at some point it's about what people feel and want, and/or want to feel. It's a sign of immaturity.
"To reduce the entirety of society to a stack ranking of various groups by IQ oversimplifies..."
Yan, for some people, the entire point is oversimplification. I cannot think of a more distinct example of oversimplification than race. Can you?
How many "races" are there? Do we even agree about that? What is race based on? For most people, it's skin color and hair texture. We say "Black" and "White". Two *colors* for Pete's sake. Then we add "Asian"--a continent.
Then we hear people say that "Indian" is not really "Asian". Then we have Jews, which is first and foremost a religion and a culture, but somehow they are also a "race", which happens to be full of many different skin colors and hair textures. Kinda like "Hispanics" and "Latinos", another "race", but one based around a language and a hemisphere. It's a crazy system when we dare to think about it.
What about "biracial" people? Or "quad-racial" people? I could go on.
But why are so many people so desperately locked into this idea? I think it's mostly about emotion, and ultimately irrational. But the world bought into the concept of race about 500 years ago and thus, it's "real" because people believe it to be real.
Some people think race is so real/important that they're fighting for "racial purity" (and they honestly think it's achievable in some way).
Even when they realize it is not, they continue to act like it is. Why? Because at some point it's about what people feel and want, and/or want to feel. It's a sign of immaturity.