If we are discussing race, as it is recognized widely by society and as it is accompanied by unequal power relationships that adversely affect our society, then it isn’t racism. It’s dealing with a real and concrete problem. While I would love to get to the point where we don’t have race or racism in our society, and where we don’t have to talk about the fact that when people in our society see a face that is a shade or two darker than peachy-pink, they start thinking negative thoughts…we’re not there yet. And if we’re not able to talk about race, as it exists as a problem within our society, then I don’t know how we’re supposed to address the accompanying issues or correct them.

How do you propose we talk about this issue, Angie? Or do you just propose we not talk about it at all? Because I hate to tell you this, but no problem ever got solved by pretending like it wasn’t there.

Race is the elephant in the room, and I am so beyond tired of people saying, “Talking about race is racism!” No, it’s not. Failing to address the problems that accompany perceived race in America IS.

Very nice.

I agree that if a field is scientific, then a PhD in that field implies scientific research. Similarly, if a field is non-scientific, a PhD in that field implies non-scientific research. So if we were to consider sociology psuedoscientific, then we would take a PhD in sociology to imply psuedoscientific research. So: it would still be “Doctor Smith, who has a PhD in sociology”, not “Doctor Smith who has a psuedo-PhD in sociology”. If you wanted to stick a ‘psuedo’ in there, you would need to say “Doctor Smith who has a PhD in the psuedoscience sociology”.

“A PhD is also the highest degree, it confers authority, it is based standards, etc.”

Agreed.

A PhD is also the highest degree, it confers authority, it is based standards, etc.

So we could certainly address someone as pseudo-Doctor Moron with a pseudo-PhD in a field of the social pseudo-sciences such as sociology.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/

Wikipedia also has a summary of many issues related to what is “science” and the “scientific method”:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_and_sociology_of_the_history_of_science

Why do you ask?

Of course, what matters more than the classification is what the government does with it. And separating part-white part-aboriginal children from their families to increase the fraction of the population classified as white is horrible.