Thread by @EveKeneinan

Lewis Gordon holds that only “ONE race exists, and that race is ‘Negro’.”

I’m going to explain why Gordon’s conclusion is a non sequitur, and in the process explain why one can’t correlate ANCESTRY with RACE.

Gordon is right that the study of human genome shows all humans originated in Africa.

“From a genetic point of view, there is indeed one human species that originated in a single region.”

So how does he get that these ancestral humans were NEGROS?

Because they were from Africa, of course.

Everyone knows that Negros come from Africa.

Africa has a special Negro-making property.

I’ll assume you aren’t stupid enough to believe that Africa does actually have a special Negro-making property.

The point here is, of course, “originated in Africa” says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the traits that people typically assume to be racial: skin color, hair texture, what have you.

“Can’t we check the ancestral DNA to see if it contains the racial trait genes?”

Here’s the rub: NO, WE CAN’T.

Ancestry is genetically traced via genetic material THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE EXPRESSION OF RACIAL (OR ANY) TRAITS.

Let's say that group B is descended form group A, which is shown by genetic ancestry tracking, and that group B expresses traits R, deemed to be racial. Does this mean that group A, the ancestral group of B, express traits R?

Answer: Maybe. Maybe not. We don’t know.

Why don’t we know?

Because we don’t have any of the genetic material from A that could possibly tell us. We do *have* genetic material from A (that’s how we can prove their relation to B) but it doesn’t code for any proteins and hence no biological traits.

In other words, there’s a line of descent leading from A to B, but nothing whatever to tell us how “close” or “far” B has wandered from A vis a vis their “racial” traits.

Our first ancestors in Africa *may* have been dark-skinned, like (some) negroes. Or they may have been light-skinned, in the way hairless chimpanzees are.

To put it shortly, to use ancestral tracking genetics to “predict” race or worse, to “establish” race doesn’t work. There’s no connection between “having ancestors from region X” and “being of race R.”

So, again, we know that all human beings ancestrally come from Africa.

This tells us exactly that, that all human beings come from Africa.

It tells us exactly nothing about “race.”

Unless you want to posit that the land mass Africa has a special “Negro producing property."