Wilson and Group Evolution

It's in part to do with being Politically Correct: Describe ants and termites all you like, but heaven forbid you should attempt to explain humans with the same ideas.

Describing racial differences as if they were permanent, were inherently bad or justified discrimination is frankly wrong, but that's different from wondering why the clearly identifiable groups exist in the first place, or why we have group loyalty.

Personally, I'm more optimistic. Now that global travel and national exchanges are everywhere, everybody's starting to see that we are Not So Different and race will most likely become practically and socially meaningless (and racial discrimination even less defensible). It's clear we don't have to resign ourselves to anything as scary-sounding as "conflict between them is inevitable".

The problem is that the "Races" most people think of (blacks, whites, asians, etc) really have very little scientific support. They are little more than a set of skin tones/facial features that happen to be correlated. The "races" have far more physiologically in common, and regional differences that do not correspond to race are far greater, than most people are aware. However, just based on a superficial reading of Wilson's theory one could argue that human beings have been selected for group benefit, therefore there is nothing wrong with Whites treating other whites preferentially relative to members of other races.

^ The logic you're describing contains a huge leap—going from "humans do such-and-such naturally" to "doing this is the right thing for humans to do." Rational animal, remember?

Edit: I'm not calling you racist or anything, since you don't actually believe the logic you're describing. I'm just pointing out that the logic isn't sound even by itself.

edited 28th Oct '11 5:16:45 PM by feotakahari

However, just based on a superficial reading of Wilson's theory one could argue that human beings have been selected for group benefit, therefore there is nothing wrong with Whites treating other whites preferentially relative to members of other races.

feotakahari pointed out the problem with this kind of thinking: things being the way they are does not translate into things as they ought to be. There is everything wrong with whites treating other whites preferentially relative to members of other races, not least of all because the basis for such discrimination is superficial, unjustifiable and not even applicable to everybody.