Race is purely a social construct

"My opponent claims that the argument for race not being a social construct is not only incredibly sound, but so sound in fact that it is "self-evident". This is nothing more than a con. If it were so self-evident, there would be no point of contention, now would there?" Yes, there would. Why? Because it is obvious that contention is made not on scientific, rational grounds, but on ethical grounds. People are trying to pull the wool over our eyes with bogus, propagandist, sociological interpretations of science. " The variation amongst what are popularly called "races" is not sufficient or relevant to sub classification" The variation is wholly sufficient. It's true - your eyes DO NOT deceive you. Races exist. "Now you may try to claim that the 15% variation is what defines separate races in human beings, but what you do then is you play the dangerous and ultimately frivolous game if making the term "race" absolutely meaningless. If the minor variation we see in human beings, such as differing skin colour of facial structure, is enough to classify people into different races, we might as well begin to classify people based upon their height, weight, eye colour, hair colour, chance for diseases, and other useless and meaningless genetic components of their being." It is you who are trying to make the term race meaningless, hence this futile attempt at convincing people that race as an objective fact doesn't exist. Let me get this right, if we were to take two Caucasians from Europe and test them for genetic differences we would find that their differences were purely individual. Now, if we were to take a Caucasian from Europe and a Negroid from Africa and test them for genetic differences then we would have, AS A STARTING POINT, a 15% difference in genetic makeup prior to ascertaining their individual genetic differences. This is far from negligible. It is this foundational difference that makes the race. Each race has a composite of genetic differences that are clearly distinguishable. It is possible to identify race from the most basic structure of humanity - the skeleton. Now no one can argue that a skeleton is a social construct. But the skeleton can be used to determine what that skeleton would look like if it was fleshed out, and which race it would be. http://shs2.westport.k12.ct.us... There are fundamental differences by which humans can be classified, both mechanical and biological. These are called races. Notice my opponents appeal to your disgust at race-ISM as a means to support their notion that race does not exist. The very idea that race does not exist is founded exclusively on an anti-racist sociological ideal. This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But you the audience can embrace equality and diversity I'm sure. Equality IN diversity. Unfortunately my opponent can't. My opponent seeks to indirectly make the claim that we can only have equality if there exists no diversity and so would have us believe that we are all the same and that quite obvious differences are merely illusory. She would seek to deny the uniqueness of someone's race. So what is the REAL racist approach here? But back to the topic at hand. I cite an interesting scientific paper discussing the case that humans are polytypic. https://lesacreduprintemps19.files.wordpress.com... Do not allow the argument against the social values of racial classification detract from the truth that there are classifiable biological and mechanical composites within humanity.