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Check out this video of Bill Nye the Science Guy using scientific evidence to argue that “race” doesn’t exist from a biological perspective. Nye first debunks the myth of purebred dogs by analyzing that canine breeding and evolution has yielded a broad spectrum of physical characteristics but no actual variance in species:
“We obsess about whether our dog is a pug-Jack Russell terrier mix with corgi overtones and an oaky finish…whatever. They’re all dogs, okay? And so the idea of a purebred is just a human construct. There’s no such thing – in a sense there’s no such thing as a purebred dog.”
He then draws s comparison between the idea of dog “breeds” and human “races”, both just being constructs:
“If a Papua New Guinean hooks up with a Swedish person all you get is a human. There’s no new thing you’re going to get. You just get a human…for humankind there’s really no such thing as race. There’s different tribes but not different races. We’re all one species.”
Any thoughts on Nye’s argument?
I like the distinction he makes clear here. His acknowledgement of our shared humanity – all of us literally being the same species took my attention away from the idea of individuals and race and differences and brought my attention back to the idea of how similar we all actually are. Just as mentioned in class and in the first episode of The Power of Illusions, we are all more similar then we might expect. We are all human. We are all the same species and in an evolutionary context we all practically the same. There is only a slight change in genetics from one person to the next. Maybe, based on this broader perspective, it will encourage more enlightened reflection on just how similar we all are. Encouraging less of a draw towards the idea of superiority between race, acknowledgement of the social construct that is race, and hopefully the move to extinguish its accepted meaning.