American Society of Human Genetics Denounces Interest in Human Genetics

By Steve Sailer

09/18/2021

From the American Journal of Human Genetics in 2018:

ASHG Denounces Attempts to Link Genetics and Racial Supremacy
Open Archive Published:October 19, 2018

The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) is alarmed to see a societal resurgence of groups rejecting the value of genetic diversity and using discredited or distorted genetic concepts to bolster bogus claims of white supremacy.

Because the ASHG values genetic diversity, it insists that all groups are genetically identical.

Or something.

Okay, let’s try that again: All races are diverse, but some races are more diverse than others.

ASHG denounces this misuse of genetics to feed racist ideologies. In public dialog, our research community should be clear about genetic knowledge related to ancestry and genomic diversity. To that end, ASHG affirms the following:

Genetics demonstrates that humans cannot be divided into biologically distinct subcategories.

Granted, we in the genetics business divide humans up into racial categories all the time, but those are not biologically distinct categories, they are biologically distinctive categories.

Big difference.

Although there are clear observable correlations between variation in the human genome and how individuals identify by race, the study of human genetics challenges the traditional concept of different races of humans as biologically separate and distinct. This is validated by many decades of research, including recent examples.

Which you can go look up for yourself because we aren’t going to demean ourselves by providing examples.

Most human genetic variation is distributed as a gradient, so distinct boundaries between population groups cannot be accurately assigned.

For example, in 1491, how could you tell where sub-Saharan Africans and Amerindians began and ended? The Atlantic Ocean was just a gradient.

Oh, wait, remember what we said about no examples?

There is considerable genetic overlap among members of different populations. Such patterns of genome variation are explained by patterns of migration and mixing of different populations throughout human history. In this way, genetics exposes the concept of “racial purity” as scientifically meaningless.

It follows that there can be no genetics-based support for claiming one group as superior to another.

It follows. Follow the Science. Don’t try to think about the logical connection, if any, between our last two sentences. Just listen to us. You’re getting very sleepy.

Although a person’s genetics influences their phenotypic characteristics, and self-identified race might be influenced by physical appearance, race itself is a social construct.

We said the magic words: “social construct.” As all well-educated people know, when we say that phrase, that means to turn off your brain. You are well-educated, aren’t you?

Any attempt to use genetics to rank populations demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of genetics.

For example, anybody who ranks populations on, say, skin color fundamentally misunderstands genetics.

Trust us.

The past decade has seen the emergence of strategies for assessing an individual’s genetic ancestry. Such analyses are providing increasingly accurate ways of helping to define individuals’ ancestral origins and enabling new ways to explore and discuss ancestries that move us beyond blunt definitions of self-identified race.

For example, black activist Shaun King self-identifies as black, but, c’mon, just look at him!

Oh, wait, remember the part about No Examples?

Through its support for research at the leading edge of human genetics, ASHG will continue to advance scientific knowledge and debunk genetics-based arguments promoting racial supremacy.

Just look at all the debunking we’ve done in this article. And we expect to debunk a lot more straw men. Like did you know that modern genetics has proven that whites and blacks are not separate species from different galaxies? Take that, racists!

ASHG also encourages all society members to be active as citizens in political, policy, and social advocacy organizations that reflect their values.

But not if your values include science, objectivity, and curiosity.

Look, people, we’ve got jobs in human genetics. Don’t get our funding canceled by researching topics that anger the powerful.

[Comment at Unz.com]

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