Why is racism wrong?

[Mister Agenda]

How is it that you know that racist arguments are based on "bad" science? I didn't notice any badness in the methods used by racists when I had a look at them.

Your claimed inability to notice something is not evidence of anything.

Let me tell you how a racist would answer your claim that "race itself is not a scientifically sound concept." Here goes.

That's how I would answer it, as well. Disagreeing that race is only a social construct isn't racism. Racism is the belief that one or more races is inherently inferior to another.

So, futilethewinds, in what way is the racist argument dependent on "bad science"?

So far it's just dependent on bad logic. Poverty alone doesn't explain differences between crime rates of whites and blacks in the USA. That doesn't mean the explanation must be race.

I've noticed the opposite. Egalitarians bring forth every alternative to genetic factors that they can think of and insist that racial differences must be caused by one of them, or by several of them in combination, but on no account can genetic factors be an important contributory cause. The egalitarians never say why this must be so. The racists, on the other hand, usually disprove (or provide good reasons for doubting) each of the alternatives proposed by egalitarians and say that genetic factors have not yet been disproved by any similar criticism. The egalitarians, say the racists, never disprove; they merely rule out.

Why should your hearsay trump mine?

I have not noticed that racists actually do this. Racist arguments are usually much better supported by facts than egalitarian ones are. The idea that racists "rely" on hasty generalizations and on fallacies is something egalitarians often say. But they seldom come up with examples (quotes) of racists doing this; they merely allege that racists do this.

Why should your bare assertions trump mine?

Not in my experience. Rather, egalitarians do most of the cherry-picking, while the racists continually point out that cherry-picking is what the egalitarians are doing.

Why should I believe you?

For example, I recently observed a discussion between a racist and an egalitarian on YouTube. The egalitarian identified Neil deGrasse Tyson, a black astrophysicist, as the reason the racist was wrong about blacks in general having inferior IQs. Here's what the racist said in reply (using several separate posts that I've strung together below).

Hasty generalization. An anecdote can't support a categorical claim.

Racist blah blah blah

Nothing the racist said supports the idea that the difference in IQ scores between races is because of race. Identifying a gene that tends to lead to lower IQ and proving it is more prevalent in people of black African descent and there is no different gene in Caucasians with the same effect would prove it...but he did not do that because he can't.

I haven't noticed that, either. Racists ask important questions and make challenges that their egalitarian opponents often find difficult to answer well. I have, just now, given you a taste of racist argument. If you find fallacies or falsehoods in them, please show me where with quotes.

I don't even have to go past what you've said. See above.

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Racists attribute to race what can be explained by history, culture, and geography.

Right. Race.

"Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by anatomical, cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical, historical, linguistic, religious, or social affiliation."

Appeal to dictionary. Really?

Anyway, there's nothing inherently wrong with racism.

You are correct. Inherently wrong, no. Actually wrong, yes. For starters, belief that some particular race is inherently inferior to some other particular race isn't justified at this time.

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You need to read the Racists Say The Darndest Things section of fstdt.com and you'll change your mind about this.

I bet he won't.