The Study of Racialism

What can I say? Conversations can be THAT good sometimes!

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[url]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bili_Ape[/url]

This is the recently discovered Bili Ape, which until its official discovery, was a cryptid.

Not much is known about the Bili Ape; but there is speculation that they may be chimpanzee/gorilla hybrids.

Of note, gorillas are the second closest relative to humans after chimpanzees (including bonobos). AND chimpanzees are closer to humans than they are to gorillas. If chimpanzees and gorillas can make hybrids, then there's no reason to rule out the possibility of a "humanzee."

Though, erasmus, I'll give you credit before you even say it - we don't even know for a fact whether or not Bili Ape is a chimpanzee/gorilla hybrid to be making that argument in the first place.

I know this, but it is something to think out.

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There is no doubt that, at some point heading back in the past to the point of a common ancestor, a predecessor of the chimp/orangutan/gorilla would have been able to successfully mate with the predecessor of a human. The recent discovery of Neanderthal DNA in humans shows this. Likely, many similar connections with other early human like primates will be found in the near future.

Also, hybridization may be achievable in the future within laboratory settings. This is already being done with several foods (think flounder genes in tomatoes), and recently people have been putting the mitochondria from one woman's egg into that of another. But that is a bit different from establishing an evolutionary link.

Agreed with the scope of extra investigative analysis, however I still fail to see how this would lead to back to classification of humans based upon physical features and the use of such classification to bring back 18th racism which essentially is what it is.

Yes Flash. Take any given "black" & "white" biracial couple with children. Those children will generally have some first cousins who are "black" and some first cousins who are "white." Those first cousins are, by definition, more closely related to them then the other people in the world who are not their immediate cousins, regardless of "race."

Then apply our understanding of the point that "black" Americans average only 85% recent African ancestry and that about one in three "white" Americans also has recent African ancestry. This means that most people in both "black" and "white" "race" categories have an abundance of close cousins on both sides of the color line. And that those close cousins, who can be found as members of both socially (and physically) ascribed "races," are more closely related to them then are most other people in the world of either of those socially (and physically) ascribed "races."

If you are a "black" man and you meet a "white" man and a "black" man randomly on the streets of Manhattan, there is a very good chance that you are more closely related to the "white" man, in terms of ancestry, then you are to the "black" man.