What is "Race?"

I'm white.

I'm not going to deny this.

I was born this way.

The same way a person with "black" skin was born with "black" skin.

There are a few ways we can look at this.

The first way is from a genetics point of view, my personal favorite.

According to genetics, there are no "races" of people. We as a species are 99.99% identical in our genetic code. That .01% accounts for our skin color, our hair, all of our other phenotypes (looks).

"The term race is often used in biology taxonomicaly, as a synonym for subspecies. In this sense, human races are said not to exist, as all humans are classified as the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens.[7] Many scientists have pointed out that traditional definitions of race are imprecise, arbitrary, have many exceptions, and have many gradations, and that the numbers of races delineated vary according to the culture making the racial distinctions. Thus, those rejecting the notion of race typically do so on the grounds that such definitions and the categorizations that follow from them are contradicted by the results of genetic research" -Wikipedia

The second way to look at this is through the anthropological and historical contexts. This is basically the way we look at it in class. Which honestly, is dumb as hell in my opinion. As a society we have done an amazing job at dividing our species into groups based on the tiniest things.

I don't know what it is. Why "white" people think skin color is important. Sure, in order to have the best offspring you can,you will go out and try to find a mate that is appealing to you and that will give you the best offspring. People take things like this too far.


There is a third way. This came to me while I was talking to myself on the way to work. As I do pretty much every day to get ideas out.

Think about cats and dogs. The house pet cat we all love (well, some) is all one species. There are different BREEDS of cats. Short hair, long hair, Persian... They're all one species yet they are classified based on their looks. They are no genetically different from each other than we "whites" are from "blacks." Then there are dogs, with some exceptions. I don't think it's possible to breed a big dog like a St. Bernard with a Chiwawa due to the fact that if it's a female Chiwawa, the puppies would likely never develop. But that's for biology class and a different day.