Delaware students can now choose their own race (Yes, RACE!) under new regulations.

[sundin13]

PSintend0 said:

fatslob-:O said:

I literally don't know but biologists have created a monster too good for their own handling ... 

Nearly everything about the biological classification system is arbitrary, complex and worst of all may not even be self consistent with the idea of backwards evolution or convergent evolution ... 

Even the classification of "species" has it's boundaries blurred since two separate species can potentially interbreed so if there is no hard criteria in general for biological classification then these "deciding factors" are only soft criteria for these groupings so I do not see why human races are precluded from this since they can be grouped according to evolutionary history ... 

Science doesn't play politics, it plays with data and tons of revisionism comes with it too ... 

The world is not black and white and the taxonomic system is by no means perfect. All of its boundaries are not clearly cut, but it still serves a purpose and is meaningful. As for races the different populations of human species are just too similar to each other, they are nowhere near meeting the minimum criteria for mammal species for having races.

Its just so and isn´t up to you, its up to the scientific community, who (not all but many) by the way started studying human genetics with the assumption that there would be races and all kinds of different attributes like intelligence being higher with white people when compared to black people. That was not the case and science moved on as it should. Science is based on the most recent information and tries to adapt to better explain the world around us.

Evolution is often very slow and it takes time for races to form and from them to form new species. This also doesn´t only go in one way and isolated populations may start to become less isolated and mix more with other populations making them more similar again.

One of the classifications of a species is that different species cannot produce offspring that are able to reproduce. Two closely related species can sometimes still reproduce, but the offspring cannot reproduce (for example mule).

The concept of human race has much more to do with history and politics than biology. Its really quite interesting.

To add to that, while there are some exceptions to common breeding rules, there are other principles which dictate whether something is defined as a unique species. These principles include things like the genetic isolation of populations, and the biological significance of this isolation. While the systems aren't perfect, they are not fixed. They evolve to meet new scientific capabilities and when information is present which adequately demonstrates speciation (or non-speciation), taxonomists should respond to that information.

They largely have with humans, recognizing that the biological significance of the genetic variation within humanity is not sufficient to defend the presence of distinct races. To argue that such a rank should be maintained is to accept that "race" is a social division moreso than a biological one, because the only principle which places the categorization of perceived race above any other potential sub-categorization is the social acceptance of the term, not any objective genetic fact.