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Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture
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Jan 18 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Race is not an "immutable characteristic". We can discuss the politics of race in society without essentializing race.
While skin color is immutable, skin color is not race. This idea misses the social formation and maintenance of racial categories and the structures around them.
This is not a lecture. We're all unlearning things we've been taught for centuries now.

The more we come to see the politics behind these categories, the more we can do to fight them.
While we can acknowledge the biological fiction of race, we cannot ignore the social impacts of racism. Myths can do real damage in the real world.

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More from @rasmansa

Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture
Jan 15
When MLK said what he did in the 60s, the response was that there was little reason to protest. When activists make similar points today, they are told there's little reason to protest.

Yet, the material facts that drive the protests remain.
There was progress from MLK's birth to when he was protesting. There's been progress from his death to today.

Still, too many of the material facts driving protests remain. Social equality is still the aim.
The aim is still for a day when "race" predicts little about people's social outcomes. A day when a black child can grow up knowing that racism will have little meaningful impact on their life.
Read 5 tweets
Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture
Jan 12
The central claim in the biological race discussion is that "two people of the same race are more genetically alike than either are to a person of a different race".

This has been categorically falsified scientifically.
What often frustrates is that bio race realists will make claims based on this assumption, but then they refuse to stand by or defend it.

The smarter ones among them at least know their belief doesn't hold up to what's now known about genetics.
So one thing I want to see from bio race realists is a definition of race that is objective and independent of races they already believe to exist (i.e don't start by begging the question).

Present a method that can objectively construct what they believe to be bio races.
Read 6 tweets
Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture
Jan 6
A diagram like this helps to explain why race isn't biologically real.

Let's do a thread Human genetic diversity categorized by continent, with non-A
So humans are 99.9% the same genetically. In this diagram, the SNPs (think of them as places where people differ) that are known are grouped by the locations of people who carry them.

What we can see is that almost all of humanity's genetic diversity is found within Africa 2/ Human genetic diversity categorized by continent, with non-A
Those in Europe and those in Asia contain almost a subset of the genetic diversity found in Africa.

This is the same sort of pattern you'd see if Africa was again split into Nigeria and not-Nigeria.

So those outside Africa are like smaller groups within Africa. 3/
Read 12 tweets
Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture
Jan 4
GDPR isn't even that brutal in terms of data regulations. It makes you wonder what American companies are collecting that makes it so hard for them to be compliant.
GDPR basically says data that is personally identifiable (can be used to say who you are in real life) belongs to you.

Companies must have your consent or legal justification to use or transfer your personal data. You can withdraw that consent at any time.
GDPR also includes some guidelines for how companies can implement these regulations.

Here's the thing: GDPR is fairly easy to implement for a company that actually cares about data privacy. You want to work with those companies anyway.
Read 6 tweets
Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture
Jan 1
I'm assuming other Arsenal fans are considering this game against Man City a write-off.

Let's just have some fun then.
Gunners, I dare not dream...
This is why I don't dream.
Read 4 tweets
Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture
Dec 29, 2021
What's often labeled culture is simply rational behaviors given a people's environment.
One of the reasons I often criticize the "culture" explanation for disparate racial outcomes is that it's built on the assumption that some "races" behave more irrationally compared to others within the same environment.
An assumption of cognitive inferiority in terms of decision making and behaviors in my mind can't be separated from the view that there is something inherently wrong with those "races" relative to others.
Read 7 tweets

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