So we should engineer a perfect race? Blond hair and blue eyes, maybe?
Aesthetics are completely subjective, and nobody is talking about making all of humanity identical. Stop with the childish, stupid straw man bullshit, please.
Using genetic engineering to eliminate deformities, disabilities, disease susceptibilities, congenital defects, and behavioral tendencies which are completely at odds with a civil society is a far cry form trying to make everyone into some sort of "Aryan Übermensch" or whatever it is you're envisioning.
The fact is,
current research shows conclusively that some populations are more compatible with living in modern societies than others. Namely, those whose ancestors were still living as hunter-gatherers right up until modern times simply did not undergo the same selection pressures that those whose ancestors lived in settled, agricultural communities for thousands of years did. This is extremely problematic. This has a massive amount of explanatory power with regard to these gaps in achievement and societal health which have persisted despite all our best efforts.
One very quick and non-controversial example is the fact that black women have been shown to gain weight faster and lose weight more slowly than white women and Asian women. Their ancestors did not undergo any of the changes in calorie processing, tolerance for certain foods, etc which Eurasians did. Blacks are at a much higher risk of numerous diseases. This includes obesity and all related ailments, diabetes, heart diseases, etc.
How could anyone argue that it wouldn't be the morally and socially correct thing to do, to update African genetics by using genetic engineering and embryo selection in order to "patch" their genetics to match Eurasians? Unless you don't think humanity intends to continue living in large, settled, industrialized, agricultural ways? Or how about updating Native American genetics to make them less prone to destructive alcoholism?
There are a thousand such examples, ranging from non-controversial to extremely controversial. The ability for people to deny the more controversial ones is going to shrink and shrink as more discoveries are more firmly evidenced.
This is the nadir of Abrahamic ideology; destroy differences to achieve complete control.
Such dangerous notions arise from the desert cults of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
I am not a theist of any stripe, and nothing about what I'm suggesting implies "destroying differences" nor is it connected in any way to any religion.
differences must in fact be preserved in order for society to function at its optimum state.
You're being silly. There would still be plenty of differences in humanity if we used scientific knowledge and embryo selection to drastically cut down or eliminate the number of psychopaths born, or people with Downs syndrome born, people born without limbs, born blind, born with IQs which will severely hamper their prospects in society... born with metabolisms which are just not going to play nice with our modern environment... etc
It's a silly false dichotomy to act like we either let the genetic roll of the dice land anywhere it may, producing many very cruel results for people from their birth, OR we eliminate all differences and make the species a bunch of complete clones.
These are not our two choices. There is a very reasonable middle ground where we use our burgeoning knowledge in this area to eliminate what are unquestionably defects and negative attributes which harm individuals and harm society. I really cannot encourage you strongly enough to watch the video I linked earlier:
Genetically Enhance Humanity or Face Extinction
the Native Americans' way of life, languages, cultures, religions have all been utterly destroyed because of the kind of thinking you espouse in the post above.
Not even remotely true. I'm talking about embryo selection to REDUCE INEQUALITIES AND CRUEL TWISTS OF FATE WHICH SCREW PEOPLE OVER. All the races would still be present, and none are at a point where they don't still need numerous such improvements including whites and East Asians. Nobody is perfect. Everyone needs genetic engineering.
So please don't act like I'm talking about genocide or manifest destiny or something. There isn't even the slightest connection between the bullshit you're attempting to shovel onto my argument, and my argument itself.
a society thrives on difference.
Well,
not really. Though obviously I agree that a society benefits from having people with lots of interests and skills, and people who think in different ways. I would never want to see us become a species of identical clones, and at no time have I come within a thousand light years of suggesting or implying any such thing. That is a concept which has no connection whatsoever to what I'm suggesting, which is the elimination of objectively negative impairments which create inequality and pain.
Wait - I was told that the main stream news never reports anything negative about black people...
Starting with the L.A. Times in 2007, numerous major media outlets have openly admitted to having a standing policy of not reporting the race of black crime offenders, and other related methods of downplaying negative things about blacks. Their stated justification for this? They don't want to "reinforce stereotypes" - so whether that's a noble reason or not, you trying to act like it isn't something the media actually does is a non-starter, because they've admitted to it.
Nobody said the media doesn't report on things which put blacks in a negative light
at all - what some have said is that they are loathe to do it and bury it in their newspaper, or frame it as white peoples' fault, or downplay the hell out of it, or otherwise just generally try to obscure the issue and never, ever point the finger of blame at the black community or culture itself. Which is true. This article in this thread is a good example, they make sure to frame it as a systemic problem, discrimination, etc.