What if, today, it was discovered that one race was genetically superior to another?

I already am physically inferior to almost everyone. Nothing would change.

Inferior how? Intelligence? Physically?

You mean it hasn’t been proven yet?? ~

I don’t think it would matter. In the end each person is judged individually I think. Doesn’t really matter what statistical generalizations can be made about your race.

I’d say the post WWII Russian geneticists had taken over the science.

I think nothing would change.
We (a lot of us humans) already feel superior over others, not necessarily over other races, but over our neighbouring countries, over other religions, sex, social- and/or economical status, other baseball or hockey teams, etc.

@JLeslie I set genetically, so I suppose it would be in numerous ways. But you are right in saying people should not be judged by their race. I am just afraid a lot of people out there would take advantage of something like that…

You might be interested in the book The Bell Curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve and a link from that wki to this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_intelligence

In what way? To what purpose?

If one race really was more advanced than another, I think the world wouldn’t even be what it is now.

Where one is inferior in one way they are superior in another.

@JLeslie Those studies are intrinsically flawed.

i think there’s little question I can’t jump very high

@RedPowerLady I wasn’t supporting the studies, just letting the OP know the topic has been written about. I never read the book, but I think it is discusses the implications if the findings are indeed assumed to be valid and true.

There is no such thing as race. We are the human race.

I don’t think discrimination would be any worse than it currently is for mentally or physically handicapped people. The inferior race would be thought of as an impaired version of the “normal” human being.

If I found out my race was inferior to all others… well, I think I’d feel rather proud of us for doing so well, certainly comparably to all other races, despite our disadvantage. Imagine if your child excelled in school, settled in well socially, went to a prestigious university, became a successful investment banker… then found out he was mentally challenged all along. I think your first response would be pride rather than shame.

@JLeslie Aha. Thanks for clarifying. I really hate those studies so please excuse my quick response.

Meh.

There’s no way any one race is so superior to any other that every member of it is superior to every member of the other race. Whether you’re talking about intelligence or physical fitness or whatever, the best of any race will always be better than the worst of any other race.
The average may be higher for race A than for race B, and the highest and the lowest may both be higher for race A than the highest and the lowest for race B, but if it turns out the average of race A is higher than the highest of race B, or the lowest of race A higher than the average of race B, then I’m going to be very surprised. It seems there’s so much overlap in all races’ ranges of how good they are at anything that it hardly matters which is best. For any two individuals, judging from race alone you still can’t tell who is better.

Africans are probably the best race at running, which is why all Olympic runners seem to be black. But a white athlete will still outrun a black couch potato any day of the week.

So to some extent I question the realism of your “if”, and to some extent I question its relevance. If it’s extreme enough to be relevant, it loses all realism. And vice versa.

@Fyrius – I believe the question envisions a hypothetical (but obviously impossible) in which there is indisputable scientific evidence (which, arguably, doesn’t exist) that one race is absolutely superior to another in all aspects. However, I do agree with your point that you can never make generalisations. Even if your race is impaired in a certain way (or all ways) you can always improve yourself as an individual to exceed the capabilities of an individual of another race.

@RedPowerLady no problem, glad you said something so I could clarify.

It would never be accepted, not with all the proof in the world. Theres always gona be people who think they are better then others for whatever reason. Its called the human race for a reason. We are the dominant species. Human. Not race.

@xxii
Ah.
Well, in a hypothetical alternate world where one race is vastly superior to another race in skill X, to a point where you can actually use your knowledge of someone’s race to predict how good he will be at X compared to other people, there’s no way that fact could elude everyone for all this time and then suddenly be revealed by science. The world would grow up with the difference, if it were so blatant.

I’m doing the same thing again, I’m aware.

@Arp, help me out here. I understand the “indisputable scientific proof” bit, but how superior are we talking here? To a point of non-overlapping awesomeness ranges?
Because if you want to know what would happen if that were discovered, then you’re necessarily asking something about an imaginary world that looks nothing like the one we live in. Such a world would already have completely different ideas on equality, it would have vastly different political ideas and quite different cultures in general.

Unless the differences suddenly become huge.

@Fyrius I think you made a great point in your first answer.

People have evolved to deal with many different kinds of climate. Dark skinned people, for example, are less likely to end up with melanoma (skin cancer) because the dark pigment melanin protects them from harmful rays of sun as one might find in the tropics. Or, it could be helpful in preventing too much Vitamin D from being absorbed. Either way, it’s clear that dark skin is helpful when you live in the hot hot sun.

Skin may have lightened as people moved North, too, so we could absorb more Vitamin D in places not so sunny. And the Asian eye fold is supposed to protect against harsh winds, such as you might find on the steppes of Asia. Heck, I bet redheads were even prettier when you live in a swamp the Celts did. You needed something to stand out.

Inasmuch as there are different skin colors, physical features, and body types that you can lump together in a construct called “race,” some of them are better than others for those things their ancestors did a lot, keeping in mind that it’s easy to overgeneralize. However, are any of these significant to the way we should treat each other? I don’t think so, personally.

So: if it were to be discovered that some racial characteristics are better than others (and they are), what would happen? Hopefully nothing.

Then I would question science for it has FAILED me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still don’t see any definition of “superior” yet.

@tinyfaery: I’m just curious about your statement that there is no race. What’s your take on things like @laureth mentioned? How some races are evolved physically for certain reasons, how some races are more likely to contract certain diseases (sickle cell anemia, for instance)? I’m not arguing, seriously. Just curious.

for some reason the link you posted is being blocked by my work internet, so if the site explains what I just asked you, let me know and I’ll just read the site when I get home

@Glow: Have you seen Step Brothers? The first thing I thought of was the father having a temper tantrum… “FAIL..YYYYYYUUUUUURRRRRE!”

Considering that any finding that branded one race superior to another on the basis of genetics would be a crass generalization since the phenotypes and karyotypes of every single member of every single race could not be taken into account in any reasonable equation or algorythm to determine genetic superiority I think what would happen is nothing.

If you were to prove the superiority of the goup of people you tested the results would be applicable exclusively to that group when you consider the vast ammount of genetic disparity and heterogeneity within even a small population of the same race.

The ammount of variables involved in the viability of life (regardless of race) would render such a study not only futile (due to the prohibitive nature of sheer sample size).. but would also bring into question what traits were to be considered superior… another factor that is variable depending on (among other things) socio-economic status, altitude, temperature, availability of a myriad of other factors that influence development and would help any particular group thrive.

Even as a hypothetical it would be implausible.

What does “genetic superiority” mean anyway?
Is, for example, a tiger genetically superior to a house cat? Or vice versa?
Or for that matter, are we genetically superior to ants or mosquitoes? Ants have an organisation that rival us, and mosquitoes—well, if we believe Jurassic Park, they’ve been around for a very very long time.

I think I would see things as an ecological system. It would be silly, I think, for the lion to declare: “I am genetically superior because I can kill you” to the zebra. (Or for that matter, for me to declare “I am genetically superior to you” to a carrot). We are co-dependent on each other, and we each have our own function in this world to fulfill our roles to the best of our ability.

@tinyfaery Is right. There is no such thing as “race” other than the human race. This belief is based in science.

I’m guessing it would probably be the superior ones who would have discovered it so they’d probably just keep it to themselves and enslave the rest of us.

Define “superior”.
I don’t see that happening since race is just skin color. Am I superior to an Irish person because I am less likely to get skin cancer than they are? No. Race doesn’t define intelligence or physical prowess.

Last time that happened on a large scale was in Germany in the 1930s.

Whoever was leading the research would be the next Himmler. Whoever was funding the research would be the next Hitler.

Ever 100 years or so somebody comes up with just such a ‘proof’ to justify their actions. The south did it prior to the War Between the States. Hitler did it prior to WW2. Stalin did it to cover his purges.

Race is a political concept to be used for anything from “Is he black enough?” arguments to genocide. Both @laureth and @tinyfaery make good points and their arguments are not incompatible. Evolving to suit a climate does not necessarily constitute a race, and with increasing globalization, persons of any appearance can be in any clime, and meet and intermarry. Distinguishing characteristics are blurring and may soon just seem “exotic” and interesting.

I thought it had already been determined that the Daytona 500 was superior to the Brickyard 400.

I would bet on no net difference in things, beyond an increase in schoolyard insults and the like.

I guess I’m not using the word “race” correctly, because I never saw the term or idea in general to be a negative thing, unless it was purposely used negatively. I guess some people just weigh more into that word than I do?

We all judge people. Some keep it to ourselves, while others feel the need to.. share it. If I were discriminated against.. then I would find the modern day “Martin Luther King Jr.” and relive history.

I think the United States would try to kill the race, but they’d label it something threatening to gain mass approval… like terrorists.

It wouldn’t change how I felt about myself. I just figure, I would give it a few months and wait for them to find a new conclusion.
The biggest problem with such a study would be the following. What is the race of the group of scientist doing the test. Are the results biased because it favored them. If it doesn’t favor them, then should we believe them right if they fall in the inferior pile?

The differences among members of the same race greatly exceed the differences between races!

Even if one racial group tested out to score better on some measure or collection of measures, the differences might easily turn out to be a function of culture and upbringing.

A culture that values and promotes excellence might well do better than one the distrusts and vilifies those with the greatest academic achievement and commitment to knowledge.

American culture admires folksy underachievers like George W. Bush over educated articulate men of accomplishment and intellect like Barack H. Obama. The former are seen as more like the average person while the latter are accused of being aloof and too different from the “Joe Sixpacks” out there.

You could see how a culture that values and respects excellence could perform better than a culture the distrusts excellent and intellect in favour of those average enough not to be threatening to the underachievers and anti-intellectuals who seek to define what their culture stands for.

Two parts to this question:

1) What would I do? Probably nothing. There are very very very few situations in life where I need to consider a race (to whatever degree that makes any sense) as a whole. Individuals matter far more in my life, so I don’t see this as making any difference at all.

2) What would the world do? Now, there might be a problem. Lots of people here make arguments that since it logically doesn’t affect things (much anyway) people would ignore it, but I don’t think thats true. I think some groups would get angry at the study and attack it, and some would use it as an excuse to do whatever they want. Eventually individuals of the “inferior” race would start doing some awesome things and people would eventually forget the study.

Ok, time for a crazy hypothetical. Aliens attack the earth and we find out that they only way to defeat them is to use <insert super awesome technology here>. It turns out that to use it, you need to have certain biological traits and therefore <some race> are the only ones who can do it. I’d say: 1) Cool beans, let them do it 2) Lets honor whichever individuals save us from the aliens and 3) But its not like the members of this race somehow consciously set this up so… lets back to life?

Oh, sorry, “what if my race were the inferior one?” Urm… not much here. I don’t really consider myself part of any groups that I don’t consciously choose to join, so… unless I get attacked for it, I’d probably ignore it (or treat it as an interesting scientific paper) and move on.

We discovered that the genomes of all humans is virtually identical, whether people are Australian aborigines, from China, Greece, Zaire or from a tribe in the Amazon jungle.

We discovered that the genomes of homo sapiens and homo neanderthalensis are relatively different. Perhaps a better question would be

What if, today, it was discovered that a group of homo neanderthalensis was still alive in some remote area of our planet?

Would we grant them citizenship and the right to vote?

No, it would not change what I thought of myself.

idk, but one thing i am sure of…. the scientists doing the study/experiment would surely be of the superior race. of course that goes without saying.

@palerider
If it were actually true this time, not necessarily.

@palerider I assume you are being sarcastic and/or pointing out how people always find their own race superior? Or are you saying that if one race is really superior they would be the one to make this ground break discovery?

@roundsquare both and either/or, it was a double entendre of sorts

@mattbrowne @tinyfaery Unless I am mistaken, the concept of ‘race’ applies to phenotypical expression, not genotype composition. The Dachshund and the Newfoundland, for instance, are the same species, yet have very different phenotypes.

There are very obvious (and less obvious) phenotypical differences between the so-called races; it seems silly to suggest otherwise. The important thing is what you make of them.