Genetic Differences Between Africans and Non-Africans

Are there any genetic differences between Africans and non-Africans? If so, what does it mean?

 

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racist link removed

 

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Are you serious?

 

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He's one of this forum's resident racists and morons.

 

The answer is quite obviously yes. Hair, skin, metabolism and so on. But then again, there are genetic differences between any two random people on earth irrespective of ethnic background. There are similarities between people of different ethnic backgrounds. You will have to be far more specific with your question if you want any meaningful answer.

Mean!?!

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It doesn't mean anything, other than being an example of evolution.


PS. And as for J.B., you can safely ignore everything from Sciforum's resident racist. <P>

 

1. Yes.
2. Preserve differences.

:bugeye:

 

Evolution is a long and winding chain, and race is one way we quantify it. That's not politically acceptable these days, but that is changing quite rapidly!

:m:

 

You'd like to think so, wouldn't you? Moron.

 

now im fucking confused.............


FACT #97: Every race has an equal capacity to learn and contribute to
civilization and any differences are caused by prejudice and racism. The
fact that white skins are associated with civilization is merely a quirk of
fortune and coincidence. Any attempt to distinguish the races is motivated
by paranoia and hatred. We must prevent any investigation into the subject
and work to melt society together into a receless, nationless, harmonious
utopia.


i thought this was white supremacist stuff? maybe they threw that in there to "give the negroes a chance"?
*shakes head* fuckin bigots.

 

Race is a real cultural, political and economic concept in society, but it is not a biological concept, and that unfortunately is what many people wrongfully consider to be the essence of race in humans -- genetic differences," says Templeton. "Evolutionary history is the key to understanding race, and new molecular biology techniques offer so much on recent evolutionary history. I wanted to bring some objectivity to the topic. This very objective analysis shows the outcome is not even a close call: There's nothing even like a really distinct subdivision of humanity.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/1998-10/WUiS-GSRD-071098.php

 

Just wondering.

 

About what, Teetotaler?

 

OK. I'll play along, though I may regret it...

Race is a real phenomenon, the same way a lot of other weird classifications are. From what I understand - our understanding of species (taxotomy?) is entirely based on what we personally think about what we are looking at... and there are some that want to change the classification system to be more in line with what we know genetically. Hence - we know that human beings are one - but we make a distinction about race, and there are a number of characteristics that go along with those distinctions. They are in fact, genetically based - however, they are not 'wedded' to any specific race. For instance - you get brown skin in others than Africans, and you get kinky hair on others as well.

Because evolution works on populations - racial characteristics show up in population clusters - as human beings start moving around more - you get blending of characteristics.

Any geneticist will tell you that genetic traits are not linked - that is - we can't assume x because of y. That there may be a statistical probability of linked traits is an accident of numbers that can be readily corrected for by increasing population mixing.

QT

 

Yes. Of course there are genetic differences. You can tell an African from a non-African, right? So they must look different.

We all appear the way we do because of our genes -- genes are under everything. Therefore, there indeed are genetic differences between Africans and non-Africans.

Despite how obvious and plain it is that there are differences, some people will deny it for reasons I don't completely understand. I've read that all races share about 99.8% genes with each other. And therefore, the differences are negligible.

I'm not how much sense that ultimately makes, however. After all, humans share approximately 98% of their genomes with chimpanzees. Does that make them the same?

Obviously not.

So even though all humans share approximately 99.8% of our genes with each other, does it mean that there aren't necessarily important and remarkable differences between different races? Of course not.

 

Sort of on topic...

I claim that no matter what studies are done, by anyone, no matter how thorough, respected, disrespected, or otherwise, the various races are and always will be completely and utterly indistinguishable in capability and ability in all respects.

Next topic?

 

Think so superluminal?
Yer a phil plait disciple.
Next topic.

 

i think i buy into cultural dispositions

 

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Anyway, I was being a bit sarcastic. My point is that in today's climate I think it would be impossible, even if it were absolutely true, to show differences in performance capabilities between races. I think it's entirely possible for there to be measurable differences in physical structure (shape, size, skin color, etc), emotional behavior, and intellectual capability across races. There are clearly physical structure differences. Race differentiation is probably a very early precursor to speciation. After all, racial differences arise due to adaptation to differing habitat conditions, right?

So the whole question of racial differences, especially regarding intellectual performance or emotional makeup, is taboo more for political reasons than for any scientific ones.

 

Why are you people bickering over race? Who cares?

YES there are genetic differences among human races. Permanent colouration doesn't come from the bloody sun. There are genes "for" it, if you want to put it like that, and they have phenotypic effects. These effects were probably useful in their home environment, or they wouldn't have gone to fixation, but now that "civilization" for want of a better term has levelled the selective field they matter very little.

Why avoid the issue?

Geoff