Urchin: Yea, there is such a thing as race.
Depending on your definition. If your definition of a "race" is a "large inbred extended family with specific gene allele frequensy distribution", then there is. Of course it's anybody's private decision which treshholds to use as "substabtial". In some respects you can have the whole humanity as one race, in others you can delineate hundreds of distinct ethnicities.
Does it really matter? I don't think so, everyone is pretty much the same genetically.
Does the alleged 1-2 standard deviations difference in intelligence matter? It's not really a trifle like the skin color that is the cause of all the controvercy, right?
The real difference is the difference in culture that springs from the difference in race.
Than again, what kind of difference in culture would we expect from populations with differing cognitive abilities if those differences proved to be true?
If the hereditary difference of 2 standard deviations is real, what kind of culture would a population develop in which 50% are capable of graduating a college compared to a population where less than 50% of population is capable of graduating a hight school, occasional genius nonwithstanding?
The urgency of verifying or refuting those assertions is very real. If there is no such difference in intelligence, the actual causes of disparity must be studied and dealt with.
If there is a difference in intelligence between races/ethnicities, then the affirmative action policies aimed at representation proportionate to the relative sizes of the populations cannot work and should be abandoned and replaced with policies intended to ameliorate the results of disparities or, more futuristically, to promote genetically-based selection/manipulation of progeny.
That would mean a huge loss of taxpayer's money and political linfluence for some people, so all the exitement surrounding the topic is understandable.
miko
