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There are no significant biological differences between races

Debate Information

At the moment i don't think there is any difference, if you have any evidence to prove me wrong show me it...


  1. Live Poll

    Are there any significant biological difference between races?

    15 votes
    1. Yes
      66.67%
    2. No
      33.33%
About Persuade Me

Persuaded Argument

  • EmeryPearsonEmeryPearson 151 Pts   -  
    Genetically, no. Races are phenotypic differences between humans. There is only Homo Sapien. Without a taxological subspecies, I am not inclined to state there are great genetic differences between races.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_taxonomy



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  • melefmelef 69 Pts   -  
    I believe that there are some biological or visible differences between races. The primary difference between races is their skin color. 
  • Bear_with_meBear_with_me 24 Pts   -  
    @melef

    I know their are some biological differences, but i said "significant", i'm referring to arguments i have heard that different races on average have different IQ's, intrinsic values, skills, extra.
  • MajoMILSdlGMGVMajoMILSdlGMGV 103 Pts   -  
    According to the article from Harvard University "How Science and Genetics are Reshaping the Race debate of the 21st Century" the biological differences between different populations (races) are few and superficial, but the traits that we do share are far more profound. Meaning that we have more in common with all races than what we have in differences. The differences are mainly superficial like skin color, hair texture, eye color, etc. Apparently these traits only account for approximately 1% of our DNA and the other 99% we tend to share. 

    Article: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/

    EmeryPearsonBaconToes
  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -  
    In order to determine whether the differences in Race are significant, one must determine the standard of what is sufficient and what context will be used.

    Imagine a room that contains a group of people representing every Race of Human Being on Earth.  Now acknowledging that the distinct physical characteristics of your body determine what Race you belong to and those same distinct physical characteristics are a result of your genetics...think about what would happen if you changed the genetics of one person in one group to that of another.

    For example: There are five Caucasoid, five Negroid and five Mongoloid in three groups.  Suppose you change the genetic makeup of a member of the Caucasoid group and his/her skin becomes black.  If you maintain the standard of properly identifying groups by their Race...does the person in question still belong in the Caucasoid group or does he/she now belong in the Negroid group?  If your genetic makeup can determine which Race of people you belong to then is that significant?  In my opinion I'd say so but mostly due to social identity.

    Our social identity is critical to us in general (Not for everyone).  Human Beings find meaning and importance in accepting and celebrating their heritage which includes your Race(s).  The common statement "I'm 1/3 Native American, 1/3 Irish and 1/3 Hispanic" is a testament to how much regard people have for their heritage and what it means to them...regardless of how accurate it is or isn't.  

    TL;DR: Our biological makeup is the code that represents what Race each of us are and we put a significant amount of importance in this as part of our identity.  Ultimately we also take note (Because it's noteworthy) of the difference in our Races, not as a benchmark in superiority but instead a benchmark in uniqueness.  So yes, it's significant.
    EmeryPearson
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • Bear_with_meBear_with_me 24 Pts   -  
    @MajoMILSdlGMGV

    Okay i agree with all that but i was speaking on the level of genetics and biology not socially. I agree that many people value their race as their identity (pretty in my opinion but it happens) but that is just a social construct not a biological fact.
    EmeryPearson
  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -  
    @Bear_with_me

    While our race being part of our identify is a social construct...your biological makeup is what determines your race.  So while there might not be a huge difference genetically between the races, the difference that IS there is what causes racial distinction and that distinction is substantial because of the Social Construct that is our identity.

    Essentially, the biological difference between the races (Being minor physical attributes) is actually substantial because of how critical our self-identify is to each of us.  Without that minor genetic difference...diversity would be limited to political ideology and personal beliefs.  Because of that minor genetic difference...we have huge diversified groups of people and I've heard that diversity is a good thing.
    EmeryPearson
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • Bear_with_meBear_with_me 24 Pts   -  
    @Vaulk

    I agree with that but i wanted to talk about alt right talking points like 'race and IQ' that i have dismissed but would like to hear some good arguments for it. I think most people agree race influences things in the world, it clearly does so im not interested in debating it.
  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -  
    @Bear_with_me

    I'm not sure what I think about Race and IQ as I've never studied, researched or heard much on the matter...although I wouldn't be surprised if White Supremacists out there truly did think that certain races were more or less intelligent that others.

    To the core of the issue: the Overwhelming majority of your IQ or intellectual capacity is determined by your genes.  Now, CAN you increase your capacity for intelligence?  Technically yes but from the available research we have...the short answer is "Not by much".  It still seems to be the case that some people are simply born to be smarter than others.  Mind you we're still talking about intelligence, not knowledge.

    Since your genes seem to determine your intellectual capacity, it would be an interesting study to see how different races compared...since genetics is what determines your Race.  I doubt you'd ever see it though, simply for fear of getting undeniable results that one race is overwhelmingly more intelligent than another.  The mere possibility of that outcome is enough to keep people away from researching it.  Anyone who did though, if they had the guts, would almost certainly labeled an automatic racist, biased, bigot, ____phobe.

    I don't have enough information or hard facts to make an educated decision on what I think is most probable in regards to Race playing a role in intelligence but I'm skeptical for now...it could just be ignorance but I can't think of an example that would in any way favor the idea that one race is intelligently superior to the other.
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • someone234someone234 647 Pts   -  
    There are obviously biological differences between the races.

    It's not just melanin either. Medicine has different treatment methods, doses etc for the races. Notable are medicines and treatment for high blood pressure and diabetes which are extremely different for a white person and a brown Asian with the condition. Blacks have a different asthma inhale dosage as their lungs are more capable of opening and actually if you used a white person's inhaler on a black person having an asthma attack, they could temporarily get the opposite problem and their lungs would painfully open wide, spasming.
    VaulkMajoMILSdlGMGVEmeryPearson
  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -  
    @someone234

    Great points there as well and that actually brings up a point as to the justification for Race classification.  There's countless entries in our current medical journals that establish solidly that different races react completely differently to medical treatments as well as medicine.  Without recognizing Race...we'd never have identified that some Races are more susceptible to types of cancer and life threatening conditions.
    someone234
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • someone234someone234 647 Pts   -  
    @Vaulk I'm not sure cancer was a good example because the reason that cancer happens more in white people is because in Western environments youa re open to radiation more often and yes, genetics play a part in how susceptible you are to the mutation but you will find equally that if Indians or Pakistanis (same exact race for Western Indians and Pakistanis, just Hindu vs Muslim) are in a slum near to radiation from a factory with poor environmental care (same with Chinese) they are always having higher cancer rates.

    That being said, you're correct and in medicine it's very silly to ignore race as well as gender.
  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -  
    Indeed gender as well.  The Cancer considerations are not necessarily "Which race is more likely to develop cancer" but instead "Which race is most at risk of developing aggressive and/or untreatable forms of Cancer.  People of certain Jewish descent in the United states have a 1 in 40 chance of developing certain types of serious and aggressive Breast and Ovarian cancers from their inherited genetic mutation BRCA1 or BRCA2 as opposed to the population of America in general holding 1 in 400.

    Likewise certain types of triple-negative breast cancer have been found to disproportionately develop in women of African-American ethnicity, a cancer considered not only aggressive but extremely difficult to target.

    https://www.cancercenter.com/community/thrive/genetic-risk-race-and-ethnicity/

    It's critical to note that without research centers acknowledging the difference between races and subsequently studying and researching cancer rates/behavior, we wouldn't have the advances in medicine that we have today in regards to cancer treatments for specific demographics.
    MajoMILSdlGMGV
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • Bear_with_meBear_with_me 24 Pts   -  

    IQ is determined by genes but genes can be influenced by the environment. I mean i couldn't give you a list of studies but i looked into this a bit and what i read was a survey by anthropologists and biologists (i think) asking them what explained individual differences in outcome in different countries. I think on average they said nature was responsible for under 20% and nurture was responsible for over 80%.

    So on that point, i would say that your position on society depends much more on your upbringing than your nature you are born with.
  • Bear_with_meBear_with_me 24 Pts   -  

    I can't argue with that, people who live in high altitudes can cope better, people who live in cold places can cope better, people have evolved somewhat to better suit different environments. But when i say significant im referring too claims made by the alt right such as certain races are predisposed to have certain values or IQ.


  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -   edited May 2018
    @Bear_with_me

    Agreed, I don't think there's any correlation between race and values.  There is something however, to be said about the correlation between *Culture* and values.  There's no doubt that some cultures put disproportionate value on things like freedom of expression and respect for individual lifestyle while other cultures put value on financial success and other cultures press harder for traditional family values.  While there is something to be said about certain races dominating specific cultures...I don't think that it's genetic (Biological)...it's more of "That's just the way it aligned".

    I can see how it would be easy to confuse Culture and Race as they both tend to align closely.  You see cultural crossover more in today's world but the Races still mostly dominate their respective cultures.  Cases where someone of a particular Race breaks out of the cultural norm are still the exception to the rule rather than the norm.  Makes it really easy to color code people and although you shouldn't...it's understandable.  If someone were to look at me and take a guess as to my upbringing, my status in life, my generic history...I wouldn't blame them...prejudging people is in our nature and if it wasn't then we wouldn't distinguish friend from stranger.
    BaconToes
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • brontoraptorbrontoraptor 123 Pts   -  
    @Bear_with_me

    Yes. There are differences. Otherwise the NFL and NBA wouldn't be 75% African American.
  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5967 Pts   -  
    There are significant statistical differences between races - however, according to modern science, as well as simple historical observations, those differences are not inherent to the races biologically, but, rather, are developed over time based on that fact that historically races would stick together. Any societal group living in specific conditions long enough will develop unique traits that allow one to differentiate most of its members from other groups.

    For example, it is undeniable that statistically, on average. black people have lower IQ than white people, and they also have higher height and muscle power than white people. I would explain it by the fact that black people historically predominantly lived in Africa, in the region that for many historical reasons always lagged behind Western territories in development. As such, African people had to rely much more on physical activities, such as hunting, than people in Europe, where some form of technologically advanced civilization existed as early as in 500 BC. People in Europe, on the other hand, shifted much faster towards the intellectual-based society, where the primary activity of a large fraction of the population was intellectual.

    Up until the colonial era finally ended around 1960-s, almost all people in Africa were treated as second-rate humans and were mostly illiterate, performing mostly manual labor. And even in the US they faced a lot of racial discrimination, preventing them from getting proper education and, again, forcing them into working on factories or other areas requiring a lot of physical strength and endurance. Hence these differences in IQ and muscle power persisted. They will likely disappear in a couple of centuries, as race becomes less and less of a relevant factor in modern societies, and as the lifestyle of the individual becomes less and less dependent on their race.
  • drodgersdrodgers 35 Pts   -  
    Your theory has already been proven wrong by science over and over again.  There exist now biological, physiological and intellectual differences between races.

    If you're asking if there are developmental differences over vast time (millennia), not decades, that's a much more difficult, if not impossible, question to answer from a single point in time.

    As has been expressed, there likely are not significant gene differences and given normalized environment, that likely leads to negligible differences over vast time.  However, you likely will always have biological differences between say people raised in an arctic environment vs those raised in a equatorial one or those raised in high altitude climates vs sea level.  
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