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Originally Posted by JohnnyB
There are many 'racial' categories bandied around that are formed on the basis of cultural, national or religious backgrounds and which have little to do with any sort of properly racial categorization. It's also not so simple as dividing folk up into whites, blacks, asians, etc. Africa has something like 6 distinct black indigenous races, one of which is the pygmies.
Granted these categories are functional catgories useful for genealogical purposes, and there is crossover between races (which I'm sure would be increasing in modern days of travel). Nonetheless, the differences do not exist because we observe them. The differences are there for us to observe. The distinctions may strike you as arbitrary, but they are justifiable.
I don't know why this is such an issue. Would you not expect people who have lived on separate parts of the planet for many many thousands of years to have developed differences?
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Of course there are differences in people. There are differences between people within a "race" too. The lines in which we seperate those differences are arbitrary and formed as you say above. They are social constructs; not concrete or genetic as you stated earlier.
Concrete would imply that they can not change and are bound by there properties and the genetic differences between humans are not significant enough to be catagorized seperately.
There is infinite genetic interchangeability between "races" which leads to an unlimited number of new "races". It is possible to have as many races as there are people. If race is genetic, there could be billions of genetic races. Would race still be concrete or even a useful method of catagorization?
Your Africa example also shows counter evidence to race being a genetic fact. If the definition of race changes from place to place, culture to culture, how is it anything more then a social construct?
Brazil is another example that has dozens of racial catagories that have more to do with wealth then anything physical. "White" in Brazil mean you have money; even a dark skinned person can become white there. Race is hardly conrete in Brazil.
So if race is genetic, how many pure races are there? Are there any pure race people left on earth? are we all just mixbreeds at this point?