It's Okay to Be Different, Except It's Not

I read a short piece about race determining culture, and it was a relatable and scientifically valid contention that people are affected by their environment, or nurture, and that people of different races who grew up in the same city or region typically identify with that culture more than whatever culture defines their ancestry.

Then the author stated that culture is real, but race is not, and this is not valid or useful.

People from different regions have different genetic makeups. Their ancestors bred with different hominids, and while we’re all homo sapiens, this fact is genetically measurable and has real world implications.

Different sexes and races have different genetic proclivities to medical problems. Women are more likely to experience a loss in bone density, while black people are more likely to have sickle cell anemia, and white people are more likely to develop skin cancer. Some diseases are confined to the x chromosome, while others are confined to the y.

Environment, or nurture, plays a role, but so does genetics, or nature.

The person who wrote race doesn’t exist has an MA in anthropology, and their statement that race is not real is an indictment against higher education and definitively incorrect.

Diversity is a good thing, both culturally and genetically, and while race, nationality, and money are all social constructs, they are still also real to varying degrees.

Genetically, race and sex are real. This is why medical institutions are required to ask our race and sex at birth. Failing to do so is significantly more likely to lead to an incorrect diagnosis, and in a rapacious and litigious capitalism like the US, all of this is quantified. This is one of the few virtues left of living in a society defined by money, speculation, and gambling.

You want as much data as possible. You don’t necessarily publicize it, as acknowledging reality is increasingly likely to hurt your bottom line, but the data is there, and this denial of reality indicates innumeracy, undermines higher education, and in this case, is hypocritical from a liberal perspective.

It’s okay for everyone to be different, but not as far as race. Despite typically looking different and having different genetic predispositions, it’s not okay to acknowledge there are different races, except for when the race someone “identifies” with is questioned.

Money is a social construct and a useful one, but only for as long as it reflects reality. The more “real” a nation’s money is, the more likely it is to endure. The more disconnected it becomes, the more likely a depression or a complete collapse, and currencies often outlive the states backing them as a matter of convenience or memory. Roman currency was in use for centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, as US currency will be if and when the US fails.

The difference is that we agree upon currency, nations, and other social constructs, but race and gender have underlying genetic realities, and the further we’re willing or unable to resist moving away from quantifiable realities, the more lost we’re going to become.

It’s okay to be different, but we have to acknowledge that we are in ways that don’t always match up to our ideologies.

If you said to a someone of a different political ideology that people in NY or London are different from people in Alabama or Lancashire, most Republicans—even Trump supporters—would accept this if not embracing it or using it for political capital.

If you say race doesn’t exist, you’re going to turn off people on all sides, and more importantly, you’d be wrong.

Pushing for diversity and inclusiveness is fine, but doing so while denying some of this diversity exists does not serve anyone.

We are dedicated to the proposition that all people are equal under the law, and we should be, but we are not all equal, we are not all the same, and taking an extreme and/or incorrect position does not help anyone.

Saying race doesn’t exist is racist.

If our differences aren’t acknowledged, that defeats the need for nuance and tolerance.

This is increasingly frustrating because we have the tools we need to mitigate this and come to rational decisions, and we implicitly accept them when it comes to necessity or convenience.

Math and science are not perfect, but they are the best tools we have, and we take them for granted every time we flick a light switch, flush a toilet, or post or thoughts on the internet.

But if they don’t align with our opinions, which are increasingly based on ignorance and intolerance, we’re willing to flush them down the toilet.

Per the data, gender is fluid, but more so for some than others.

Race is real.

Nuclear power is our best and only viable option.

Sex is real.

Wind and solar are a net loss.

These are not opinions. They’re the best assessments we’re capable of with the tools and data we have. If those assessments change, I’ll change with them because what I think does not matter. All that matters is what I can reasonably substantiate, and as we’re becoming better at identifying salient variables and analyzing data, these assessments are becoming more robust.

Most of us want a better world, or at least a better life, while failing to recognize that the two are inextricably linked. We’re stuck with each other here and now, and scientists are biased, too. We all are.

What the data is saying about climate change is horrifying, and it’s happening in real time and much faster than expected.

It is difficult to trust anyone or any source, or expect people to become rational, numerate, or reach any level of expertise outside of their field (or even within it). It’s too much to ask, but I’m asking anyway.

I don’t think a goddamn thing.

But I know we could do better.