WEBVTT - What Does the Word 'Caucasian' Really Mean?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren vogl Bam here. If you've ever watched

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<v Speaker 1>a police procedural, you've probably heard a description of a

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<v Speaker 1>suspect that goes something like this. The suspect is a

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<v Speaker 1>six ft pound Caucasian male wearing a white T shirt, jeans,

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<v Speaker 1>and so on. But what does Caucasian really mean. It's easy,

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<v Speaker 1>of course, to equit Caucasian with white, but that one

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<v Speaker 1>word Caucasian touches on issues much deeper than skin color.

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<v Speaker 1>It kindles questions of race and the very origin of humans.

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<v Speaker 1>It even exposes the topic of whether race exists outside

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<v Speaker 1>of our own weird minds. Spoiler, in humans, no genetic

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<v Speaker 1>basis exists to separate our species into races. We spoke

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<v Speaker 1>with Joseph Graves, a professor of nanoengineering and the intern

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<v Speaker 1>dean at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering in Greensboro,

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<v Speaker 1>North Carolina. He said, there's no scientific justification for use

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<v Speaker 1>of the term Caucasian. It's actually a nineteenth century anthropological

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<v Speaker 1>idea that was based around a false conception that the

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<v Speaker 1>origin of the human species was in the Caucus Mountains.

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<v Speaker 1>The Caucus Mountains run from the Black Sea to the

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<v Speaker 1>west to the Caspian Sea on the east, in an

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<v Speaker 1>area that's considered by many as the crossroads between Eastern

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<v Speaker 1>Europe and Western Asia. These mountain ranges, two of them,

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<v Speaker 1>the Greater and Lesser, are due east of Italy, due

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<v Speaker 1>north of Iraq, and due west of India. The southern

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<v Speaker 1>tip of Russia lies to the north of the Caucus Mountains.

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<v Speaker 1>To the immediate south as Georgia, a former Soviet republic,

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<v Speaker 1>This is where Caucasians, true Caucasians call home. People from Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan,

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<v Speaker 1>and Armenia hail from that area. But Caucasians, as first

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<v Speaker 1>identified by German anthropologist Jonan Frederick Blumenbach, and as some

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<v Speaker 1>still think of the group today, lay claim to a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more real estate than that. In sevente in the

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<v Speaker 1>third edition of his book titled On the Natural Varieties

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<v Speaker 1>of Mankind, Blumenbach, building on work by Swedish scientist Carolus

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<v Speaker 1>Linnaeus and others, used the word Caucasian to describe one

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<v Speaker 1>of his five races of man. He determined each through

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<v Speaker 1>scientific methods like the measuring of skulls, and tied each

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<v Speaker 1>to distinct geographic regions. Caucasians were, as Bloombach presented them,

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<v Speaker 1>the white race, and included people not only from the

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<v Speaker 1>Caucus region, but also those from Europe, Northern India, and

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<v Speaker 1>parts of northern Africa. The other groups Bloombach identified tied

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<v Speaker 1>loosely to skin color were Malaysian, Ethiopian, Native American, and Mongolian.

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<v Speaker 1>Though Bloommbuch found that the quote many varieties of man

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<v Speaker 1>are as present known to be one and the same species,

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<v Speaker 1>his work nonetheless was seen as giving scientific credence to

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<v Speaker 1>the concept of biological race. Over the years, that notion

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<v Speaker 1>has been abused in order to separate groups of people,

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<v Speaker 1>often by skin color, and to declare, through some bastardization

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<v Speaker 1>of science, the superiority of one race over others. Also,

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<v Speaker 1>years after bloom Back, scientists found that the earliest humans

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<v Speaker 1>didn't come from the Caucus, but from Africa in modern

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<v Speaker 1>day Ethiopia. Classifying humans into races, whatever blooming Box intentions,

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<v Speaker 1>continues today. The term Caucasian is still rolled out occasionally,

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<v Speaker 1>and not only on TV police dramas. The Graves said,

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<v Speaker 1>I was just at a conference here in Minnesota where

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<v Speaker 1>a researcher from South Africa kept referring to herself and

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<v Speaker 1>others in her country as Caucasians. I think it is

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<v Speaker 1>very very much a white supremacist, racist ideology. I think

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<v Speaker 1>it has to do with euro Centric racial ideology. People

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<v Speaker 1>wish to hold onto the special designation exemplified by this

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<v Speaker 1>term Caucasian beyond Caucasian. The U. S Census Bureau has

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<v Speaker 1>its own definition of race quote a person's self identification

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<v Speaker 1>with one or more social groups, and it asks respondents

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<v Speaker 1>to choose from its own categories white, Black, or African American, Asian, American, Indian,

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<v Speaker 1>and Alaska Native, Native, Hawaiian, and other Pacific islander. The

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<v Speaker 1>census allows those survey to choose some other race as well.

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<v Speaker 1>The Census bureaus definition of race that it's self identified

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<v Speaker 1>and based on social groups is different than blooming box

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<v Speaker 1>and that it's notably social, not sig sientific, and it

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<v Speaker 1>supports the now widely accepted finding that race is not

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<v Speaker 1>something that's supported by science. Genetically speaking, someone can't be

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<v Speaker 1>of the white race, or the Caucasian race, or the

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<v Speaker 1>Mongolian race. We are of one species, according to the

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<v Speaker 1>National Human Genome Research Institute, humans are identical in genetic makeup.

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<v Speaker 1>Gordon Hodson, a professor of psychology at Canada's Brock University,

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<v Speaker 1>explained in psychology today, scientists generally do not recognize races

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<v Speaker 1>as biologically meaningful. Yet scientists, including me, discuss race and

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<v Speaker 1>describe the racial composition of our samples. To be clear,

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<v Speaker 1>I am not advocating that we ignore race. In fact,

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<v Speaker 1>there are many dangers in ignoring races a social topic.

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<v Speaker 1>Race is real, but race is socially real, not biologically real.

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<v Speaker 1>Yet the term Caucasian, despite its problems, has proven stubbornly resilient.

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<v Speaker 1>Some people perceive it as being more scientific or dispassionate

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<v Speaker 1>than saying white, even though the exact opposite is true.

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<v Speaker 1>Based on the words origin from a provenly incorrect hypothesis

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<v Speaker 1>and later used to perpetuate prejudice. In two thousand four,

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<v Speaker 1>Graves wrote a book called The Race Myth. Why we

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<v Speaker 1>pretend race exists in America? From the introduction quote, we

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<v Speaker 1>must recognize that the underlying biological diversity of the human

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<v Speaker 1>species cannot be artificially apportioned into races because races are

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<v Speaker 1>simply not biologically justified. If we can understand that all

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<v Speaker 1>allegiance to racism is ideological, not scientific. Then we may

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<v Speaker 1>be able to silence the bigots once and for all.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by John Donovan and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clang. The brain Stuff is a production of iHeart

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<v Speaker 1>Radio as how Stuff Works. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other social topics, visit our home planet has

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