Dear Sharkfin,

Berg focusses on colour because bergs like the one that sunk the Titanic are white.

Not that it matters much, but saying that we are all African is not the same as saying that we are all blacks.

As has already been pointed out, not all Africans are "negroid"/blacks, and if I recall correctly, I think that it is currently suspected that early humans were likely to have been that most prevalent of human colourings, brown, and that truly black skin types may have developed when humans migrated from Africa to S. E. Asia, and that skin colouration then migrated back to Africa.

Personally, I prefer to be classed as a Carbon Based Biped.

CLOWNFISH: <saying that we are all African is not the same as saying
that we are all blacks>

True, but I am quoting directly from this article by Nayan Chanda
who is quoting an author he calls Lasse Berg. The last line in the article states <we need to internalise what Berg tells his audience: we are all blacks>

sharkfin: << I don’t believe that “race” is a social construct, I believe that it is a biological construct and that mankind is driven by biological dictates. >>

For sharkfin and others who are obtuse, uneducated or just bloody-minded about "race", this is what the (US) National Human Genome Research has to say about the subject:

<< Notwithstanding the genetic differences between individuals, all humans have a great deal of their genetic information in common. These similarities help define us as a species. Furthermore, genetic variation around the world is distributed in a rather continuous manner; there are no sharp, discontinuous boundaries between human population groups. In fact, research results consistently demonstrate that about 85 percent of all human genetic variation exists within human populations, whereas about only 15 percent of variation exists between populations (Figure 4). That is, research reveals that Homo sapiens is one continuously variable, inter-breeding species. Ongoing investigation of human genetic variation has even led biologists and physical anthropologists to rethink traditional notions of human racial groups. The amount of genetic variation between these traditional classifications actually falls below the level that taxonomists use to designate subspecies, the taxonomic category for other species that corresponds to the designation of race in Homo sapiens. This finding has caused some biologists to call the validity of race as a biological construct into serious question. >>

http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih1/genetic/guide/genetic_variation1.htm

C J Morgan, I beg to differ, I think that you are the obtuse, bloody minded one about race.

Are you seriously stating that nature(biology)had no input into the obviously different physical characteristics we see between different groups of humans (races) around the world, that it is all a social construct. Maybe we should all get our glasses tested we are obviously seeing differences that aren’t there. Funny I could swear I see racial differences between say the Japanese, Europeans, and Africans. But I can’t be seeing it because it is a made up social construct.

Yes I did read the article you referred me to in your post.
The article states<this finding has caused SOME biologists to call the validity of race as a biological construct into serious question. Sorry I don’t agree with that. What else is it, if not a biological construct? Did Some magic fairy wave her magic wand and create the very visible racially different looks. The human species may only have .1% difference in it’s genetic coding as to what makes it the human animal that it is, never the less all ethnic cleansing and wars are based historically on ethnic (RACIAL) territorial hostility.
Territorial behavior in all species is a biologically driven behavior.

As for uneducated, define educated . If you hang around libraries all your life like I have you can become very self educated. Intelligence is a particular way of perceiving things,usually in a clear sighted way. Not everyone who is educated has this ability, take some of the people who run this country as an example.

Incidentally C J, I have seen the documentary about IDA. You would do well to not except blindly everything the scientists tell us. They have had to modify or change their minds about other things they have proclaimed as certain on more than one occasion. Much like a lot of the religious teachings that were proclaimed as certain as well, like the earth being flat for example and the centre of the universe with the sun revolving around it. (Christian religion)