Race in America Part 2

Dr. Reich argued that we should be careful about drawing conclusions about race that involves constructs that can be modified by the environment. For instance, in studying performance on an intelligence test, factor in such variables as a number of years of schooling, the way a person was reared, and the socioeconomic factors of the parent’s .Genetics do not exist in isolation. Differentiating the percentage pertaining to genetics or nature and the percentage pertaining to nurture or environment are age-old relevant questions. In fact, a behaviorist John Watson emphasized learning and experience, or simply put, nurture, and believed that experience could be inscribed in any message on the tabula rasa, which is the blank slate of human nature. Dr. Watson stated in 1925 “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select-Doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and yes even beggar-man, and thief regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, locations and race of his ancestors.” This behaviorist incorporated the effect of negative learning regarding the development of social and political ideas of race. To illustrate, if a poor person of color is subjected to negative environmental influences, that Homo sapien is likely to develop negative character traits. My sister took part in a DNA testing. The results were 99.6% Ashkenazi and .4% Sephardic. Ashkenazi Jews refers to ethnicity of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe-Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus. Sephardi Jews lived in the Iberian Peninsula-Spain, Portugal, and France. Although our parents were born the United States, both sets of grandparents were born in Russia. Location, location and location. My friend Tony’s early DNA story indicated 45% Europe, South; 20% Europe, West; 12% Caucasus and 11%, Scandinavia. Tony’s mother and grandparents were born in Italy, but he’s not sure about the birthplace of his father and his father’s parents. Does this make Tony half Italian? To Be Continued