| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Ubiquitous" |
| Date: |
18 Apr 2006 06:37:56 AM |
| Object: |
We Are All Rainbows Now |
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Will DNA testing for "race" end up promoting colorblindness?
Friday, April 14, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
For decades, TV journalist Geraldo Rivera has battled the old rumor that
he changed his name from Jerry Rivers to qualify as a Hispanic and thus
become eligible for some news outlet's minority-hiring program. As
inaccurate as the story may be, it's easy to see why many people believed
that someone holding an ethnic card might try to cash it in--and how the
tale fed cynicism about America's emerging system of racial and ethnic
"preferences."
A serious legal debate about affirmative action rages on today and will
not end anytime soon. Yet once again, an absurd story is drawing
attention to the essential difficulty of trying to engineer diversity or
make up for past racial wrongs generations after they occurred. Actually,
there are two stories, but they both raise the same question: What if
everyone in the U.S. is now holding an ethnic chip, theoretically
redeemable at some college or workplace or government program? If we all
try to cash them in, will the preference edifice collapse?
We're not there yet, but some signs are pointing in that direction. The
first comes from Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights. Writing about a commission hearing on the development of
questions for the 2010 census in the April 12 National Review Online, Mr.
Kirsanow noted that the 2000 census let respondents define themselves
according to 126 racial/ethnic categories--up from just five in 1978.
Such information is more meaningless than ever, Mr. Kirsanow writes: "The
rapid proliferation of racial and ethnic classifications does little to
dampen suspicions that the categories are, at a minimum, arbitrary--and
probably specious. Someone may have been Black of Hispanic origin in
1990, but today that person might be Cuban or 'some other race.'"
What criteria should we use to determine a person's race? Some Americans
are trying to use DNA testing to win success or riches in the diversity
sweepstakes. A New York Times article Wednesday opened with the story of
adopted twins, born of white parents. Since DNA tests purport to show
that the boys have a bit of Native American and African blood, their
father hopes the newfound ethnicity will help them qualify for college
financial aid. Is this the new "one-drop rule"?
Then there is the 98% "European" woman who applied to college as an Asian
after a DNA test found a 2% "Asian" strain. And with all that casino
money out there, it's no wonder that some Indian tribes face people
demanding a share of it based on only DNA "evidence."
Evidence is in quotation marks because DNA testing for genealogy involves
as much supposition as science at this point. Human beings have so many
genes in common that assigning slight variations to countries of origin
or specific ethnic groups is often just guesswork. Even so, it is not
that difficult to imagine a flood of Americans trying to milk the
preference cow this way. Now picture officialdom struggling to respond.
In a world where everybody is a rainbow, where does the sorting begin?
Come to think of it, though, this was always the ultimate goal of people
of goodwill: no sorting by race, color or creed. It may just happen by
ways and means we never expected.
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| User: "ray" |
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| Title: Re: We Are All Rainbows Now |
18 Apr 2006 07:51:48 PM |
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In article <AN2dnRnel-AlUtnZRVn-sw@giganews.com>,
Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
Evidence is in quotation marks because DNA testing for genealogy involves
as much supposition as science at this point. Human beings have so many
genes in common that assigning slight variations to countries of origin
or specific ethnic groups is often just guesswork. Even so, it is not
that difficult to imagine a flood of Americans trying to milk the
preference cow this way. Now picture officialdom struggling to respond.
In a world where everybody is a rainbow, where does the sorting begin?
Come to think of it, though, this was always the ultimate goal of people
of goodwill: no sorting by race, color or creed. It may just happen by
ways and means we never expected.
Don't count your chickens. I was listening to this so-called "rape"
story of those Duke kids and the stripper. On the radio today, they
stated the DA is running for office again in a mostly Black community.
Although DNA evidence proved nobody on that team touched this woman in
any way or form, two were indicted on the charges.
These two kids who did absolutely nothing to this ***** are pawns for
the Black vote for this piece of garbage. I hope he dies in a car fire
for what he's doing to these teenagers because of his selfishness. As
long as we are alive in this Country, race will always be an issue in
some way or form until we change it.
--
--Conservatives deal with facts, liberals deal with emotion--
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| User: "z" |
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| Title: Re: We Are All Rainbows Now |
19 Apr 2006 09:00:03 AM |
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ray wrote:
Although DNA evidence proved nobody on that team touched this woman in
any way or form, two were indicted on the charges.
Gee, they must have really souped up those DNA tests.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: We Are All Rainbows Now |
19 Apr 2006 09:36:26 AM |
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On 19 Apr 2006 07:00:03 -0700, "z" <gzuckier@snail-mail.net> wrote:
ray wrote:
Although DNA evidence proved nobody on that team touched this woman in
any way or form, two were indicted on the charges.
Gee, they must have really souped up those DNA tests.
There is no DNA evidence in over 50% of rape cases brought to trial.
Right now you don't have a clue as to guilt or innocence.
WB Yeats
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| User: "z" |
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| Title: Re: We Are All Rainbows Now |
19 Apr 2006 12:00:07 PM |
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ray wrote:
the Black vote for this piece of garbage. I hope he dies in a car fire
for what he's doing to these teenagers because of his selfishness.
A car fire? Gee, tough luck for you if he gets eaten alive by muskrats,
eh?
--Conservatives deal with facts, liberals deal with emotion--
Yeah, right, we can see.
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