Originally Posted by Patriot
Alan,
As I wrote in my first post, I contemplated putting this in the politics forum, but I want to keep this as honest and as scientific as possible. Of all the posts thus far written, you are the only one who has brought into the discussion an accusation of racism, which is solely an emotional response which we are trying to avoid. I really enjoy your viewpoint in this discussion, but try refrain from losing your cool by accusing others here of something they are not. It definitely enters the realm of major rule breaking, and I don't want the mods to kill our thread.
Your posts on this subject, when read as a whole, can be boiled down in blunt, direct English to exactly the same argument made by slave owners in 1850: "Where a given person ends up in life is determined by their race".
Your "reasoning" begins with flattery: "Aren't African-Americans just terrific at sports?", but your argument is ultimately that "genetics" explains everything about human achievement. Which would explain why African-Americans have failed to attain many of the higher paying jobs in law, medicine, finance, engineering, and corporate management. Just their "inferior" genetics for those fields. After all, "we end up where our race and our genetics put us". "Genetics" become a useful tool to justify the massive problems still impacting the African-American community after four centuries of racist oppression.
Your thread created the opportunity for people to post some of the junk "science" originating from neo-nazi websites, and a number of posters have taken that opportunity. The word "racist" is not a form of "name-calling". It is a sociological and psychiatric term with a very precise meaning. Racism is a mental illness causing its victims to view a co-worker or a neighbor as merely a clone of some "race" or ethnic group, rather than as a unique individual.
A racist feels compelled to "rank" so-called "races" in terms of worn-out stereotypes, including being "superior" or "inferior" for different kinds of work, including playing basketball, riding a bike, digging a ditch, cleaning a toilet, performing brain surgery, practicing corporate law, or running a "Fortune Five Hundred" corporation.
A racist assumes that each person he has "classified" as belonging in a certain group has the "talents" that stereotypes have created for that group. Therefore, a racist might be stunned to learn that his Black neighbor does not dance, never played basketball, and does not like sweet potato pie. Instead, the neighbor prefers playing chess and eating pasta.
Anyone who believes that every human being can be neatly and accurately assigned to a "racial" classification and that any given "race" is "superior" or "inferior" to any other "race" with regard to a category of human endeavor has a mental health issue and should get professional help before their illness harms their co-workers, their neighbors, or their community.