Request for Explanation as to Why my Discussion regarding Race as a Social Construct was Deleted.

John Gould August 23, 2017 at 05:15 4075 views 9 comments

Could the moderator/s who just deleted my recent post on the issue of race as a social construct kindly have the intellectual integrity to provide a public explanation as to why my discussion topic was deemed "unworthy of debate" on this forum?

With Thanks,

John

Comments (9)

Streetlight August 23, 2017 at 06:48 #99498 0 likes

I nominated the thread for deletion on the grounds that (1) it cited no sources, (2) it did not acknowledge the contentiousness of regarding IQ as a purely heritable trait, (3) it did not acknowledge the debates regarding the specificity of IQ as a measurement of intelligence, and (4) it's polemic tone was not suitable for a topic that deserves to be - if at all - treated with extreme nuance. The mod who carried out the deletion understood the whole thing to be simply flat out racist, which, to speak again for myself, is not an unfair inference. Finally, I'll simply cite the full text of Statement 5 of Genome Biology's well regarded Guiding principles on using racial categories in human genetics:

Statement 5: We caution against making the naive leap to a genetic explanation for group differences in complex traits, especially for human behavioral traits such as IQ scores, tendency towards violence, and degree of athleticism

Among the most pervasive and pernicious claims of genetically determined traits are theories on the racial ordering of intelligence [21, 22]. Despite the weak scientific basis for such ordering, the consistent return to the rhetoric of racial hierarchies of IQ reflects the powerful role that science has historically played in promoting racist ideologies [23]. Current evidence suggests that for most complex behavioral traits, contribution of any one gene to normal variation is small and these traits may be more fully explained by variation in environmental factors.

We therefore caution against making the naive leap to a genetic explanation for group differences in a complex behavioral trait, where environmental and social factors clearly can and do play major roles

Statement 4 is well worth reading as well.

I will not discuss this further.

Agustino August 23, 2017 at 09:04 #99513 0 likes

Reply to StreetlightX Please move this into feedback, otherwise it's visible even by people who aren't logged in.

Agustino August 23, 2017 at 09:05 #99514 0 likes

Would it be possible to see the contents of the post that was removed here please?

Streetlight August 23, 2017 at 09:43 #99523 0 likes

Moved. It's no longer possible to view the post.

Agustino August 23, 2017 at 10:10 #99527 0 likes

Quoting StreetlightX

Moved. It's no longer possible to view the post.

Not even for moderators/admins? :s I remember for some reason that one time Baden quoted me out of my own deleted posts, so is this certain? Maybe he can view them being Administrator on the system?

Streetlight August 23, 2017 at 10:14 #99528 0 likes

Can't speak for the Admins, but I'm 90% sure re: mods.

Baden August 23, 2017 at 10:14 #99529 0 likes

Reply to Agustino

I can but I'm not going to do it here as the situation is different. The explanation requested has been provided and the feedback discussion should not be used as a proxy for debating the deleted topic.

Agustino August 23, 2017 at 10:16 #99530 0 likes

Reply to Baden Okay, I was just asking since I never saw the topic so I cannot make my judgement with regards to it without seeing the topic, but I understand your point. Thanks!

Baden August 23, 2017 at 10:17 #99531 0 likes

Reply to Agustino
(Y)