Racialism

Racialism (also known as scientific racism) is a set of far-right pseudoscientific ideas which hold that humanity can at all be meaningfully divided into biological categories ("races") that are both broad (each category should include many humans, such as entire continents' populations) and clearly-defined (the categorization method should rarely misidentify someone's "race"). Racialism implies that these races are substantially physiologically different from each other to a degree which necessitates biological classification similar to or below the species level and that these racial differences strongly determine the abilities and behavior of individuals and peoples. In short, racialism holds that biology neatly divides humans.
This pseudoscience is not strictly the same as racism, which is the belief that one or more of these various groups is "superior" or "inferior" to one or more others for any reason. Racialism specifically uses the trappings of biology and genetics to make claims about race. But while racism and racialism are distinct concepts, their respective adherents overlap a lot.
Very few racialists call themselves "racialist". Their preferred labels include race realism or racial realism (post2000),Racial realists get a two-pronged advantage: First, they can deny their racism by saying, "I'm not a racist, I'm a realist!". Second, they can paint non-racialists as "race deniers" or "racial difference deniers", which suggests denial of the obvious facts — when in fact, science opposes racialism. and human biodiversity or HBD (post2010).By being just one "bio" away from supporting "diversity" and by failing to mention race, human biodiversity is the most innocuous form of racialism, because it allows one to deny any racism — because it's recognizing biodiversity, not being racist! The term was coined by Steve Sailer (a political blogger) of VDARE. Unlike biological diversity, HBD is unscientific.
Racialism first developed in the 1700s. It remained virtually unchallenged until the 1930s-1960s, when genetics showed it to be utterly erroneous. The idea that humans could be neatly divided into races had long been fraught. Charles Darwin noted in 1871 that there was no clear consensus on how many races there are, writing of 13 authors each making different estimates ranging from 2 to 63.Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charls R. Darwin (1871) John Murray.Genetic Basis of Human Biodiversity: An Update by Guido Barbujani (2011) Biodiversity Hotspots: Distribution and Protection of Conservation Priority Areas, edited by Frank E. Zachos et al. Springer. ISBN 3642209920. Pages 97-119. Only in 1962 was the idea first proposed that human variation is continuous."On the nonexistence of human races" by Frank B. Livingstone (1962) Current Anthropology 3:279–281.
Simply put, modern racialism is pseudoscientific bullshit. Race in its entirety is a social construct.
== Human biological variation ==
Before we begin, to deny the existence of subspecies in Homo sapiens is not to deny biological variation between populations; there is human population structure. Misrepresenting anti-racialism as the position that "all human populations are identical" or there are "no differences between populations" is a common tactic among racialists. 
=== Populations (demes) ===
Human individuals (of opposite sexes) do not randomly reproduce because of geographical constraints: " never happens in humans, nor in other animals, for a very simple reason: if nothing else, space exerts a passive restraint on who mates with whom"Van den Berghe, P. L. (1981). The Ethnic Phenomenon. New York: Elsevier. p. 22. (for example imagine a man and a woman living 1000 miles apart), but there are also equally important cultural barriers that prevent random mating. In population genetics, a "population" is defined in terms of mating propensity: breeding populations or demes, are defined as "a group of interbreeding individuals that exist together in time and space",Hedrick, P. W. (2011). Genetics of Populations. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. p. 66. or: "a collection of interbreeding individuals of the same species that live in sufficient proximity that they share a common system of mating", Templeton, A. R. (2006) Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory. John Wiley & Sons. p. 48 or more simply: "a group from within which mates are typically chosen".Relethford, J. H. (2012). Human Population Genetics. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 18.
Demes should not be confused with races.Templeton, 2013: Typically, demes are very small and localised breeding near-isolates, including tribes, rural village populations and ethno-religious groups such as the Lancaster Amish,McKusick, V. A., Bias, W. B., Norum, R. A., & Cross, H. E. (1967). "Blood groups in two Amish demes". Human Genetics, 5(1), 36-41. that have a very high rate of endogamy, although minimal gene flow still exists, somewhat blurring the boundaries of each deme:
=== Population genetics ===
The persistence of geographical and/or cultural barriers between demes over many generations has led to genetic (and phenotypic) differences. The biologist Jonathan Marks describes these populations as the "small biopackages" of human variation, but cautions that overall differences between populations are small, hence his position is "populations are biologically real, not races".Marks, J. M. (1995). Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race and History. New York: Aldine. p. 274: In population genetics, these differences are analysed by mean variation in a large number of allele (variant of a gene) frequencies, or a smaller number of with disparate frequencies. There is no formal classification of human demes because taxonomy takes no notice of breeding populations (the only infraspecific category is the subspecies or race); deme is though the operational unit in population genetics to study evolution (i.e. genetic change over generations). 
In their publication The History and Geography of Human Genes, Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi & Piazza (1994) include genetic samples from 491 breeding populations from across the globe; the authors note that "changes in means of transportation and labour opportunities have of course altered profoundly marriage customs" and found that "an increase in geographic distance between birth of mates" somewhat complicated their study. More recently, Cavalli-Sforza (2005) has worked on the Human Genome Diversity Project that includes genetic samples from 52 ethnic groups from different continents.The Human Genome Diversity Project: past, present and future. Nature Reviews Genetics. 6: 333-340. The status of these ethnic groups as demes is questionable because of their larger size in terms of numbers of individuals and more vague boundaries. Cavalli-Sforza recognises this issue; for example Han Chinese, who number more than a billion individuals and who live across the entirety of China, he does not consider a single breeding population. In the case HGDP samples from small-size ethnic groups restricted to local areas, e.g. (1000), (4000), (8000), (18000), (20000), and (25000), these are less problematic and are probably recognisable as demes. 
The biologist John Relethford throughout his work stresses that population genetics should focus on micro-size populations because these reflect actual mating behaviours; a larger number of individuals across more space is likely to contain different breeding populations. As explained by Jonathan Marks in a 2010 article: "larger units than the deme lack cohesion... to adopt a unit of analysis of human biology larger than that of the local population or deme, then, is what requires some justification today".Marks, J. (2010). "Ten Facts about Human Variation" in Muehlenbein, M. P (ed.) Human Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge University Press: 265-276. Like Relethford and Cavalli-Sforza et al., Marks goes on to deny the validity of aggregating demes into too broad divisions (large countries and continents); firstly since their boundaries are too arbitrary, and secondly because they have too many individuals (with different tendencies of assortative mating or endogamy) and so they are not useful. Relethford (2017) concludes by saying:
=== Clines ===
Interpopulation variation is mostly continuous, and the arbitrary categorization of humans into races is therefore neither useful nor an accurate method in analyzing biological variation. Instead, modern biologists and physical anthropologists tend to study 
Clines replaced the race concept from the 1960s.Deconstructing Race by Caspari, R. (2010). In: Larsen, C. (ed.). A Companion to Biological Anthropology. Wiley Blackwell: In their work Race or Clines?, Lieberman & Rice (1996) write that the rise of the cline concept was one of several facts that "laid low the concept of race".Race or Clines? by Lieberman, L., Rice, P. C. (1996). Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association. However, they are the survival of an earlier concept of individual morphological and genetic variation and not a genuinely new concept.
The word "cline" derives from the Greek word for slope and the smooth gradient or continuity of a given trait across geographic space is known as a clinal distribution. As Lieberman 2003 explains:
==Scientific viewpoint==
Modern scientific consensus is strongly against the race concept, though this was not always the case. In contrast, biological evidence for racialism has always been relatively weak, and modern evidence conclusively shows that racialism is fundamentally flawed.
===Scientific consensus: Races aren't useful===
Major institutions with expertise have come down against the biological usefulness of race:
Scientific consensus follows the above statements. Lieberman and Reynolds first attempted to determine scientific consensus on the concept of race in 1978.Lieberman, Leonard, and Larry T. Reynolds. "The debate over race revisited: An empirical investigation." Phylon (1960-) 39.4 (1978): 333-343. The number of racialist researchers has continuously declined since then.Štrkalj, Goran. "The status of the race concept in contemporary biological anthropology: A review", Anthropologist, 2007, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 73-78. This can easily be seen in the decline of papers using the race concept. For example, the percent of variation articles in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology that use the race concept dropped from ~70% in the 1910's to ~15% in the 1990's.
A 2012 survey of 3,286 American Anthropological Association members found very strong agreement that the conventional concept of race is not scientifically useful.However, there was substantially more disagreement on the role of race in medicine and race in social issues, both of which are discussed later in the article. As Wagner write: The first 10 of questions are reproduced below:Wagner, Jennifer K., et al. "Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics." American Journal of Physical Anthropology (2016).The TLDR is available here.
Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics 	Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics	Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics 	Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics	Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics
Statement 	Most common response 	Correlation of response and familiarity with genetic ancestry inferenceThe correlation is the , rho. Positive correlation means that familiarity with genetic ancestry inference and proportion of participants with the common response tended to both increase at the same time (or: response and familiarity are more monotonous). TLDR: Positive means familiarity and the common response went together; negative means the opposite. The p-value is in parentheses. Asterisk indicates significance.	N 	
The human population may be subdivided into biological races. 	Strongly disagree or disagree (86%) 	0.11 (<.00010) 	1,909 	
Racial categories are determined by biology. 	Strongly disagree or disagree (88%) 	0.11 (<.00010)* 	1,903 	
There are discrete biological boundaries among races. 	Strongly disagree or disagree (93%) 	0.14 (<.00010)* 	1,868 	
Biological variability exists but this variability does not conform to the discrete packages labeled races. 	Strongly agree or agree (89%) 	−0.035 (.12) 	1,894 	
Boundaries between what have been called races are completely arbitrary, depending primarily upon the wishes of the classifier. 	Strongly agree or agree (69%) 	0.0014 (.95) 	1,898 	
Continental population categories — Africans, Asians, Europeans — are the same as standard anthropological racial classifications. 	Strongly disagree or disagree (73%) 	0.070 (.0025)* 	1,872 	
Continental population categories — Africans, Asians, Europeans — are useful for examining genetic relationships (i.e., relatedness) among people. 	Strongly disagree or disagree (38%) 	0.21 (<.00010)* 	1,879 	
Race — as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (i.e., census categories) — is a useful proxy for ancestry. 	Strongly disagree or disagree (73%) 	0.043 (.057) 	1,890 	
Genetic ancestry — inferred from genetic markers — rather than race, is a better proxy for genetic relationships among sub-Saharan Africans, Asians, Europeans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans.	Strongly agree or agree (75%) 	0.18 (<.00010)* 	1,887 	
The distributions of physical traits overlap among races. 	Strongly agree or agree (89%) 	0.016 (.48) 	1,883 	
It should be clear that anthropologists disagree with the race concept. They do so because of anthropological and genetic evidence, presented below.
===Background: Comparison with animals===
There are two major scientific definitions of race in animals, as Templeton 2013 explains.Templeton, Alan R. "Biological races in humans." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 44.3 (2013): 262-271. The first is "geographically isolated & genetically different subpopulations":
Note: Templeton misrepresents Smith 1997 on the 75% rule,Smith, H., Chiszar, D., and Montanucci, R. 1997. Subspecies and Classification. Herpetological Review. which refers to phenotypic rather than genetic differences.Amadon, Dean. The Seventy-Five Per Cent Rule for Subspecies, 1949. The Condor.Remsen, J. V. Jr. SUBSPECIES AS A MEANINGFUL TAXONOMIC RANK IN AVIAN CLASSIFICATION. Onithological Monographs. 2010 no 67 pp 62-78. There's no hard-set rule for the exact FST cutoff, though 25% is commonly used.Pasternak, J. (2005). An Introduction to Human Molecular Genetics. Wiley-liss. p. 285. Spencer, Q. (2009). "Is cladistic race a genuine kind?". Stanford University. Graves, J. L. & Rose, M. R. (2006). "Against Racial Medicine". Patterns of Prejudice. 40(4): 481-493. The Princeton Guide to Evolution, 2017. 
The second is "evolutionarily independent subpopulations":
Both of these concepts are rejected within the human species.
===Definition One: Human gene clusters don't divide neatly into geographical groupings===
Human genetics doesn't work like racialists think it does. Race realists spend a great deal of time and effort pointing out genetic differences between geographically separated populations in gene clustering research and insisting this is evidence for "races".
In scientific work, gene clustering research in a set of populations is typically determined via subjective descriptors of ethnicity, language and geography. In this way, people can be reliably identified as members of these groups.Maglo, Koffi N., Tesfaye B. Mersha, and Lisa J. Martin. "Population Genomics and the Statistical Values of Race: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Biological Classification of Human Populations and Implications for Clinical Genetic Epidemiological Research." Frontiers in genetics 7 (2016). However, this way of categorizing people depends fundamentally on the quantity and method used to create the aforementioned framework of ancestral populations; how people are grouped into populations is completely arbitrary.
In contrast, racialism relies upon the idea that large clusters of people who are homogeneous within the cluster and heterogeneous between clusters in terms of genetic similarity exist. However, this idea has no scientific basis and in fact there is evidence against it, as Witherspoon et al. concluded in their 2007 paper "Genetic Similarities Within and Between Human Populations". As Maglo et al. 2016 write:
"Clusters" of very high genetic similarity can be -- purposefully or accidentally -- "created" via inadequate sampling of intermediate populations. In this case, three "races" are obtained (blue, purple, red) even though the overall system shows no such breaks (Maglo et al. 2016):
The above distinctions should be made clear when comparing a racialist map of the world (left), the scientific clinal map of the world (center), and human Y-chromosome (right).Y-chromosomes are passed down through fathers. For the female equivalent (passed through mitochondria), see . Note first that in the clinal map there are no sharp variations, only gradual changes, with innumerable "intermediary" cases between any two colors. Note second that the clinal map has some "fractal-ness": not only is there variation across locations (eg, Africa and Asia), but there is variation within locations (eg, Africa), and so no region is one homogeneous group.
File:1775Blumenbach.svg|Johann Blumenbach's 1775 racial typologies mapped onto the modern world.Johann Frederick Blumenbach. De generis humani varietate nativa, pp. XII-XLII. Gottingae : Vandenhoek et Ruprecht. Modern "races" are derived from Blumenbach's typologies.
File:Cline Concept Explained.png|The modern cline concept (from Maglo et al. 2016).
File:World Map of Y-DNA Haplogroups.png|A map of Y-chromosome haplogroups.
Genetic evidence makes it readily apparent that there are no sudden "breaks" in human variation. Instead, there are merely gradations ("clines"). Otherwise, it should be simple enough to point out substantial breaks in the following graphs of genetic variation of the human species:
File:Handley Pair-Wise Distance Between Populations.png
File:Handley Distance from East Africa.png
In short: There are no sharply defined "jumps" of genetic difference between humans, and so no reason to have sharply defined races of humans.
====Rosenberg et al. 2005====
A study often cited by racialists as evidence there are continental races is Rosenberg et al. 2005.Clines, Clusters, and the Effect of Study Design on the Inference of Human Population Structure by Noah A Rosenberg et al. (2005) PLoS Genet. 1(6):e70. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0010070. Rosenberg and colleagues claimed to have discovered a very small percentage of genetic variation (1.53%) is found between continents, i.e. "discontinuous jumps in genetic distance—across oceans, the Himalayas, and the Sahara". However their study only used 52 population samples. Notably no samples were included from the Sahara nor Himalayas, therefore it is not a surprise their study erroneously found genetic discontinuity between continents by poor sampling: 
With a lot more population samples, Tishkoff et al. (2009) found no genetic discontinuity between the Saharan desert and Sahel, instead a genetic continua runs "across northern Africa into Mali (the Dogon)"The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans by Sarah A. Tishkoff (2009) Science 324(5930):1035–1044. doi:10.1126/science.1172257. (see also Serre & Pääbo, 2004).Evidence for Gradients of Human Genetic Diversity Within and Among Continents by David Serra & Svante Pääbo (2004) Genome Research 14:1679-1685. doi:10.1101/gr.2529604.
===Definition One: Human phenotypes don't divide neatly into geographical groupings===
Expressed genes turn into phenotypes, the actual manifestation of differences. Phenotype is, at times, fairly close to genotype and, thus, might fit into the genetics of race. However, it too is a flawed metric.
As a case study: The highest level of long-distance runners comes not just from Kenya, but a particular part of Kenya and their success is defined, in part, by common genetics.The Kenyan success genetic controversy by Ross Tucker (13 April 2013) The Science of Sport. But that isn't race. In fact, the opposite end of the running spectrum, sprinters, features a large proportion with ancestral origins in West Africa.[Pourquoi les Blancs courent moins vite by Jean-Philippe Leclaire (2012). Grasset. ISBN 2246785316.French book examines why black sprinters dominate the Olympics (2012-08-06) France 24. Both sets of genes favor running, but entirely different aspects of it. By these genes alone, the two groups might appear to be different races, even while our knee-jerk appearance-based definitions put them in the same race.
Applying the same technique as Witherspoon, Strauss and Hubbe analyzed data of head shape and found that, across three regions that correspond to three common racial definitions, a typical person in any region was about 30% likely to be more similar to someone from a different region than to someone within their own region.Craniometric similarities within and between human populations in comparison with neutral genetic data by A. Strauss and M. Hubbe. Hum. Biol. 2010 Jun;82(3):315-30. doi: 10.3378/027.082.0305. In other words, head shape, one defining factor of race, does not correspond consistently to geographical heritage in the way it would be expected were genetic differences determinant of race. In even shorter words, the genotype may be similar among a race, but phenotype is less similar. This may explain how one white supremacist was so surprised to discover his African heritage.White Supremacist Finds Out His Ancestors Were Black by The Young Turks (Nov 13, 2013) The Trisha Goddard Show (archived copy).
===Definition Two: Human races are not evolutionarily independent===
Racialist views oversimplify the complicated history of humanity. For example, the racialist (left) paints evolutionary lineages with very broad brushes. This effectively hides the smaller human evolutionary groups that can easily be seen in a scientific tree diagram (center). In comparison, the "trellis" diagram (right) most correctly shows the substantial amounts of inter-continental gene admixture that has occurred throughout human history.
Racialist Tree Diagram.png|A racialist "tree" diagram that doesn't fit human evolution(Lieberman 2003)
Proper Tree Diagram.png|A proper "tree" diagram that shows smaller evolutionary groups(Lieberman 2003)
Racial admixture.png|A "trellis" structure better describes human genetic admixture(Templeton 2013)
===Genetic evidence: Race does not predict human variation well===
If race were more than just a social construct, the genetics of race should show differences strongly associated with the definitions of race. The easiest distinctions come from things like skin color, hair, and eye shape which, yes, are genetically based, but the surface commonality is not enough to justify racial stereotypes. For those stereotypes to be true, the genetics of race have to extend deeper.
However, modern genetic data has demonstrated the vast majority of variation (>85%) is found within populations, rather than between them (<15%).Barbujani, Guido, et al. An apportionment of human DNA diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 94.9 (1997): 4516-4519: See also Apportionment of Racial Diversity: a Review by Brown, R. A., Armelagos, G. J. (2001). Evolutionary Anthropology. 10(1):34-40.Human Races: Classifying People vs. Understanding Diversity by Barbujani, G. (2005). Current Genomics. 6(4): 215-226: Partitioning of Genetic Variation in Human Populations and the Concept of Race by Madrigal, L. & Barbujani, G. (2007). In: Crawford, M. (ed.). Anthropological Genetics. Cambridge University Press.Race, Ancestry, and Medicine by Feldman, M. W. & Lewontin, R. (2008). In: Koenig, B. A. (ed.). Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age. Rutgers University Press.Genetic Basis of Human Biodiversity: An Update by Guido Barbujani & Vincenza Colonna, in Biodiversity Hotspots, 2011. Springer, ISBN 9783642209918. Of the latter, <10% is found between large continental groups of ethnic groups/demes (such as "white" or "black" or "Asian").
It is possible to compare the variation of various phenotypic markers (eg, skull structure) genetic markers (ie, DNA patterns) within populations and between populations. The vast majority of these studied differences have yielded low rates of deviation between races and between ethnic groups. This suggests that the vast majority of deviation actually occurs within populations, rather than between populations. In turn, this casts serious doubt on the term "race" having any meaning whatsoever -- if the vast majority of variation is within populations, then it makes little sense to categorize each population. As the below table of scientific studies of differences between human population groups (Taken in part from Ruvolo & Seielstad 2001Ruvolo, Maryellen, and Mark Seielstad. "The apportionment of human diversity: 25 years later" in Thinking about Evolution: Historical, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives, edited by Rama S. Singh et al. (2001). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521620708.) should show, it is the case that the vast majority of variation occurs within populations.
Neutral genetic/phenotypic markers 	Neutral genetic/phenotypic markers 	Neutral genetic/phenotypic markers 	Neutral genetic/phenotypic markers 	Neutral genetic/phenotypic markers
Data 	Reference 	Percent of deviation within populations	Percent of deviation between ethnic groups	Percent of deviation between "races"
17 classical polymorphisms17 blood groups. 	Lewontin (1972)The Apportionment of Human Diversity by Lewontin, R. (1972). Evolutionary Biology. 6: 381–398. 	85.4% 	8.3% 	6.3%
18 classical polymorphisms10 blood groups, 3 serum proteins and 5 red blood cell enzymes. 	Latter (1980)Genetic differences within and between populations of the major human subgroups. by B. D. H. Latter (1980). Am. Natu. 116:220-237. 	85.5% 	5.5% 	9.0%
25 classical polymorphisms14 serum proteins, 9 blood groups and 2 leukocyte antigens. 	Ryman et al. (1983)Differences in the relative distribution of human gene diversity between electrophoretic and red and white cell antigen loci. by N. Ryman et al. Hum. Hered. 33:93-102. 	86.0% 	2.8% 	11.2%
57 landmarks and dimensions of the skull 	Relethford (1994,Relethford, John H. "Craniometric variation among modern human populations." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 95.1 (1994): 53-62. 2002Relethford, J. H. (2002). "Apportionment of Global Human Genetic Diversity Based on Craniometrics and Skin Color". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 118(4): 393-398.)	78.8% 	6.7% 	14.6%
109 atDNA microsatellite lociAutosomal DNA (meaning, any DNA inherited from chromosomes other than sex chromosomes) microsatellite (meaning, long stretches of DNA where a pattern in the DNA is repeated) locations. 	Barbujani et al. (1997) 	84.4% 	4.7% 	10.8%
79 RFLP'sRestriction fragment length polymorphisms (meaning, variations in the length of a restriction fragment, which is a fragment of DNA that has been cleaved by a restriction enzyme). and 30 atDNA microsatellite loci	Jorde et al. (2000)Microsatellite diversity and demographic history of modern humans. by L. B. Jorde et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94:3100-31003. 	84.8% 	1.6% 	13.6%
21 Alu insertions 	Romualdi et al. (2002)Patterns of Human Diversity, within and among Continents, Inferred from Biallelic DNA Polymorphisms by Chiara Romualdi et al. Genome Res. 2002 Apr; 12(4): 602–612. doi:10.1101/gr.214902. 	82.9% 	8.2% 	8.9%
377 atDNA microsatellite loci 	Rosenberg et al. (2002)Genetic structure of human populations by N. A. Rosenberg et al. Science. 2002 Dec 20;298(5602):2381-5. 	94.1% 	2.4% 	3.6%
100 Alu insertions 	Watkins et al. (2003)Genetic Variation Among World Populations: Inferences From 100 Alu Insertion Polymorphisms by W. Scott Watkins et al. Genome Res. 2003 Jul; 13(7): 1607–1618. 	88.6% 	1.9% 	9.6%
17 X chromosome markers 	Ramachandran et al. (2004)Robustness of the inference of human population structure: A comparison of X-chromosomal and autosomal microsatellites by Sohini Ramachandran et al. Hum. Genomics. 2004; 1(2): 87–97. doi:10.1186/1479-7364-1-2-87. 	90.4% 	4.6% 	4.9%
40 atDNA insertions/deletions 	Bastos-Rodrigues et al. (2006)The genetic structure of human populations studied through short insertion-deletion polymorphisms by L. Bastos-Rodrigues et al. Ann. Hum. Genet. 2006 Sep;70(Pt 5):658-65. 	85.7% 	2.3% 	12.1%
642,690 atDNA SNPsAutosomal DNA (meaning, any DNA inherited from chromosomes other than sex chromosomes) single nucleotide polymorphisms (meaning, variations in a single pair of the ATCG nucleotide bases). 	Li et al. (2008)Worldwide human relationships inferred from genome-wide patterns of variation by J. Z. Li et al. Science. 2008 Feb 22;319(5866):1100-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1153717. 	89.9% 	2.1% 	9.0%
783 atDNA microsatellite loci 	Rosenberg (2011)A Population-Genetic Perspective on the Similarities and Differences among Worldwide Human Populations by Noah A. Rosenberg. Hum. Biol. 2011 Dec; 83(6): 659–684. doi:10.3378/027.083.0601. 	93.9% 	2.4% 	3.8%
27 landmarks and dimensions of the pelvis 	Betti et al. (2013)Global Geometric Morphometric Analyses of the Human Pelvis Reveal Substantial Neutral Population History Effects, Even across Sexes by Lia Betti et al. PLoS One. 2013; 8(2):e55909. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055909. 	91.5% 	5.6% 	3.0%
This is not to say that there is no variation between humans. As the above table should make clear, it's quite the opposite. Indeed, genetic data does show that random people sampled from within a population are generally more similar to each other than a pair sampled from different populations.Genetic Similarities Within and Between Human Populations by D. J. Witherspoon et al. 2007. Genetics. 2007 May; 176(1): 351–359. doi:10.1534/genetics.106.067355. (That's hardly surprising since, when left to their own devices, people tend to procreate with local folk more than with folk from another part of the world.) Moreover, with enough genetic information (i.e. more than 1000 genetic loci), it is possible to quite accurately identify the geographic origin of a sampled person's ancestors, but only when the chosen regions are quite distinct. (Or: Icelanders and Ashkenazi Jews might be genetic clusters, but "Caucasians", "Mongoloids", and "Negroes" are not). However, Witherspoon 2007 cautions:
In other words: Just because variation exists does not mean it is meaningful. As the above sections about race in animals should make clear, a little variation does not a race make.
==Theoretical and practical flaws==
===Definitional issues===
The main problem is that new concepts of race used by racialists are watered down to the extent they are trivialised. Hochman 2014 writes: Unnaturalised racial naturalism by Adam Hochman, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Volume 46, June 2014, Pages 79–87.
Hochman (2013) rejects these new concepts and re-definitions on the grounds (emphasis added) "the criteria applied to humans are not consistent with those used to define subspecies in nonhuman animals, and no rationale has been given for this differential treatment".Against the New Racial Naturalism by Adam Hochman (2013). The Journal of Philosophy. 110(6): 331-351: and 
Another problem with re-defining race is: "To avoid making 'race' the equivalent of a local population, minimal thresholds of differentiation are imposed". Modern racialists however argue there is no threshold which runs into the problem of any population being a race: "There are undoubtedly no two genetically identical populations in the world; this has nothing to do directly with the validity of race as a taxonomic device. Unless we have defined exactly what we mean by this… differences between populations are population differences, nothing more."Geographic and Microgeographic Races by Marshall T. Newman. Current Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), pp. 189-207. (see Jean Hiernaux comments on pages 197-198). Another objection is a "mismatch argument", where local breeding populations not ordinarily conceived as races (e.g. Amish, or ), become races: "a mismatch occurs between the concept and its typical referent. Thus, the concept of race must be eliminated due to its logical incoherence."Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Race)
===Epigenetics===
Along the way from chemistry to expression, the environment gets its chance to intervene. Epigenetics studies the way in which factors outside of the DNA itself alter the way in which genes are expressed. Resembling Lamarckian genetics, epigenetic effects can be remarkable enough for a mouse to pass a specific fear response down at least two generations (F3).Fearful Memories Passed Down to Mouse Descendants: Genetic imprint from traumatic experiences carries through at least two generations By Ewen Callaway, Scientific American (from Nature magazine on December 1, 2013). In humans, increased risk for cardiovascular disease among African Americans is hypothesized to result from genetic expression modified by in utero experience of maternal stressors.Epigenetics and the embodiment of race: developmental origins of US racial disparities in cardiovascular health by C. W. Kuzawa and E. Sweet. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 2009 Jan-Feb;21(1):2-15. doi:10.1002/ajhb.20822. Epigenetic effects might tie socioeconomics to future IQ, explaining some portion of controversially observed racial differences.Socioeconomic status modifies heritability of IQ in young children by Eric Turkheimer et al. 2003. Psychology Today vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 623-628.See also the lead-crime hypothesis article.
===Case study: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid===
As an example of why arguments for racialism fail, consider the case of the "-oid" concept of race.
Ethnic groups and demes in Africa/East Asia/West Eurasia do not form a sharply discontinuous genetic (or phenotypic) cluster, nor are there substantial differences between populations in East Asia, compared to populations from other regions across the globe. Overall, genetic variation between continental human populations is fairly little (<10%) and does not support the concept of different human races. The terms, however, have continued into modern forensic literature (though they are being phased out even of that).
For several reasons, these types of theories are incredibly flawed.
====Capoids and Australoids====
Early anthropologists realized a major flaw in the 3-oid version of racialism — Eastern and Southern Africans, Aboriginal Australians and other ethnic groups were all black, but looked totally fucking different from West and Central Africans. How to fix this? decided to split "Negroid" into three races — (West and Central Africans), ( East or South Africans), and (Aboriginal Australians and everyone else).
Ironically this newly added "Australoid" racial category was just as ill-defined as it's predecessor. Coon included anyone and everyone outside of Africa whom he considered to be dark-skinned — ethnic groups in South and Southeast Asia were all haphazardly grouped together with Aboriginal Australians. These groups, of course, have pretty much nothing to do with each other genetically to warrant this categorization. 
Other hilarious fails of this branch of racialism include classifying as a mixture of Australoid and Caucasoid, on the sole basis that they're darker skinned than other Europeans (with zero evidence ever being provided), as well as Coon's idea that the , who are indigenous to Japan, are Caucasoid and in the same group as Europeans — as it would turn out, they are genetically tied to East Asians and have no trace of any "Caucasoid" related ancestry. 
Coon did not, however, figure out what "oid" the Native Americans were. Perhaps racialists of the future will finally create the long-anticipated 6-oid system — or find out that Native Americans were actually just really tanned Caucasoids.
====Reversed hierarchy====
Funnily enough, the cranial order was once asserted to be Caucasoid > Mongoloid > Negroid; clearly, whites are the bestest. Nowadays, as racialists have become fond of Asians, the order has shifted to Mongoloid > Caucasoid > Negroid. Perhaps an entire continent of people have simply upgraded their skulls?How Caucasoids got such big crania and why they shrank: from Morton to Rushton by Lieberman, L. (2001). Current Anthropology. 42(1): 69-95.
===Alternate classifications===
Why stop with simplistic appearance-based racial classifications? Why not racially classify humans based on other genetic traits that are just as geographically dispersed as skin color?
*Type B blood: Native Americans (First Nations for residents of Canuckistan) and Aboriginal Australians would form one race while some Africans would form a race with Europeans and other Africans would form a race with Asians.Ethnicity and Race Overview by Dennis O'Neil, Palomar College. 
*Sickle-cell anemia risk: One race would encompass the major malaria-risk zones of Central and Northern Africa, parts of the Mediterranean, Arabia, and India.from PBS: Race — the power of an illusion — background readings Interview with Joseph Graves, Jr. (2003) PBS.
*Lactase persistence, the ability to digest milk sugar in adulthood: much more common in areas where dairy farming has been practised for thousands of years.Convergent adaptation of human lactase persistence in Africa and Europe by Sarah A Tishkoff et al. Nat. Genet. Jan 2007; 39(1): 31–40.
*Defined by one gene alone, you could divide the world into sprinters (strong RR on ACTN3), long-distance runners (strong RX on ACTN3), and everyone else. Geographically, that's some people with West African heritage, some with East African Heritage, and everyone else.
==Race and intelligence==
One obsolete theory attempted to link cranial capacity (cc) to intelligence. While cranial capacity is an accurate measure of brain size, the fallacy was in assuming that a larger cranial capacity (and brain) correlates with higher intelligence. The size of the brain itself is only weakly correlated with intelligence.Meta-analysis of associations between human brain volume and intelligence differences: How strong are they and what do they mean? You will no doubt be very surprised that European researchers claimed Europeans had the largest cranial capacity.
If this idea were taken to its logical conclusion, the world would likely be ruled by elephants, or sperm whales. It is only when a person has an extremely small brain, as with abnormal conditions such as that absolute brain size has any negative impact on cognitive functions.
Furthermore, having a very large amount of brain tissue, referred to as megalencephaly, is recognized as being pathological and is strongly correlated with several neurological disorders, especially severe epilepsy and autism. What is much more important than absolute brain size includes factors such as cortical folding, neuronal organization, dendritic and synaptic connections, etc.Fact or Fiction: When It Comes to Intelligence, Does Brain Size Matter? What does brain size say about a creature's mental abilities? by Kayt Sukel (April 14, 2009) Scientific American.
A handful of 21st century racialists including figures such as J. Philippe Rushton and Arthur Jensen have continued to argue that certain races are just inherently dumb. While they still like their skull and brain size measurements, their arguments hinge more on pointing to differences in races' average IQ scores and claiming this is the work of genetics. These claims rest on several big assumptions:
#That IQ is a measure of some kind of objective intelligence, rather than a measure of the skills needed to excel in 21st century Western society (a controversial claim).
#That there are genetic differences between "races" big enough to explain the IQ difference.
#That IQ is more dependent on racial genes than environment (or: if environment affects IQ, then the differences in IQ by race should still be significant after controlling for the environment).
Increasingly, evidence has been suggesting that environment plays a large role in IQ. This started with the discovery of the Flynn effect — the realization that national average IQ scores were increasing over time at a rate much faster than could be explained by genetics (and, interestingly, ethnic minorities were often making the biggest leaps).The Flynn Effect by Charles Graham (2001), revised by Jonathan Plucker (2002). See also None of the Above: What I.Q. doesn’t tell you about race by Malcolm Gladwell (December 17, 2007) The New Yorker; and The Flynn Effect and IQ Disparities Among Races, Ethnicities, and Nations: Are There Common Links? by Scott Barry Kaufman (August 23, 2010) Psychology Today.James R. Flynn. Searching for Justice: The Discovery of IQ Gains Over Time by James R. Flynn. American Psychologist, vol. 54, no. 1, Jan. 1999, pp. 5-20.
Relevant to this discussion also is Eric Turkheimer's study of twins separated at birth and raised in different socioeconomic environments. The study found that environment mattered more to the development of IQ in the poor kids than it did in the rich kids. Essentially, some degree of genetically-determined IQ exists, but the degree to which it develops is dependent on how intellectually-stimulating their environment as children is. Other explanations, such as the It's Not Me, It's You. by Annie Murphy Paul (6 Oct. 2012) The New York Times The New York Times.Twenty Years of Stereotype Threat Research: A Review of Psychological Mediators by Charlotte R. Pennington (2016) PloS One 11(1): e0146487.Nguyen, Hannah-Hanh D., and Ann Marie Ryan. “Does Stereotype Threat Affect Test Performance of Minorities and Women? A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Evidence.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 93, no. 6, 2008, pp. 1314–1334. doi:10.1037/a0012702 racial discrimination in the education systemMickelson, Roslyn Arlin (2003). "When Are Racial Disparities in Education the Result of Racial Discrimination? A Social Science Perspective". Teachers College Record. 105 (6): 1052–1086. doi:10.1111/1467-9620.00277Marks, D.F. (2010). "IQ variations across time, race, and nationality: An artifact of differences in literacy skills". Psychological Reports. 106 (3): 643–664. doi:10.2466/pr0.106.3.643-664, lack of funding for schools in poor areas, more talented teachers avoiding teaching at schools in poor areas, and even differences in dietIvanovic, Daniza M.; Leiva, Boris P.; Pérez, Hernán T.; Olivares, Manuel G.; Dı́az, Nora S.; Urruti, Marı́a Soledad C.; Almagià, Atilio F.; Toro, Triana D.; Miller, Patricio T.; Bosch, Enrique O.; Larraı́n, Cristián G. (2004). "Head size and intelligence, learning, nutritional status and brain development. Head, IQ, learning, nutrition and brain". Neuropsychologia. 42 (8): 1118–31. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.11.022Feyrer, James; Politi, Dimitra; Weil, David N. (2017). "The Cognitive Effects of Micronutrient Deficiency: Evidence from Salt Iodization in the United States" (PDF). Journal of the European Economic Association. 15 (2): 355–387. have been offered.
===An irony===
Although these IQ-based arguments for racialism are often used by white supremacists, taken to their logical conclusion, they would better support Asian or Jewish supremacy than white supremacy. Rushton actually agrees that Asians, not whites, are the intellectual master race, leading anthropologist Jonathan Marks to remark:
===Adaptation doesn't work like that===
Adaptation to environments, including social environments, through natural and sexual selection of random mutations is the linchpin of evolution. Remembering this means knowing why scientific racism is ridiculous. To argue that races or ethnic groups differ innately in intelligence, however defined, is exactly equal to an assertion that intelligence has proven less adaptive for some people than for others.
This at minimum requires an explanation, a specifically evolutionary explanation, beyond mere statistical assertion; without that it can be assumed to be cultural bias or noise. Since most human intelligence is in fact social intelligence — the main thing the human mind is built for is networking in human societies — this would require this social evolutionary arms race to have somehow stopped.
Genetic differences between people from different locations are pretty much entirely genetic drift (which itself can lead to the appearance of genes that are not expressed anywhere else). Amount of melanin does vary with distance from the equator, and there's recent actual evolution such as Lactase persistence in adults.The genetics of lactase persistence by Alison Campbell (June 25, 2010 2:19 PM). The University of Waikato.
==Race and sporting ability==
There are several common beliefs about how different races have different sporting abilities. Clichés include:
* Blacks are good at track and field (especially sprintingIs it wrong to note 100m winners are always black?, BBC, 2011) and heavyweight boxing (hence the phrase "The Great White Hope"A True Champion Vs. The 'Great White Hope', commentary by John Ridley (July 2, 201012:00 AM ET) NPR.).
* Blacks can't swim.Why don't black Americans swim? by Finlo Rohrer (3 September 2010) BBC.
* East Africans are good at long-distance running.Kenyan siblings in pursuit of 2012 gold by Ben Oakley (Page last updated at 14:49 GMT, Friday, 6 August 2010 15:49 UK) BBC.
* East Asians are athletically weaker, at least at some sports.Why Chinese Men Stink At Soccer by Gordon G. Chang (7/07/2010 @ 12:38PM ) Forbes.Why Aren't Asian-Americans Getting Their 'One Shining Moment'? by Gene Demby (April 2, 20147:00 AM ET) NPR.
* Whites are better at tennis.Tennis: Why So Few Blacks? by Bud Withers (July 8, 1973) Eugene Register-Guard. (except the ).
* Whites can't jump (basketball).White Man Can't Jump: The Science Behind Stereotypes by Nikki Tucker (Sep 5, 2012 12:12 PM) Medical Daily.
On the other hand, why has Norway (population 5 million) won 132 golds in Winter Olympics and Vietnam and India none? Are Asians intrinsically terrible at skiing compared to tall Nordic types? Or does Norway have more ski slopes and better ice rinks and just care more and spend more money on it? Why has produced more Hall of Fame caliber National Football League (NFL) players than the entire continents of Europe and Asia combined? Is it because the university is religious? Is it because Irish-Americans are naturally ? Is it because running and throwing are inherently deficient in Europeans? Or is it because College Football is a huge money making business in exactly one country on Earth?
It appears that some factors implicated in sporting success are heritable (e.g. height), and therefore will be more or less common in groups with common ancestors. However, in many cases, these do not correlate closely to race (the Dutch are the tallest nationality,Gavin Haines (August 24, 2020). "Why are the Dutch so tall?". BBC News.Scientists try to answer why Dutch people are so tall (Tuesday 7 April 2015 21.21 EDT) The Guardian (via Agence France-Presse). despite stereotypes about black basketballers; previously however, in the mid-1800s, the Dutch were among the shortest people in Europe). As the section on genetic variation makes clear, there is not a simple pot of genes that corresponds to each race, so you can't assume a member of a race will have a given gene. And there are few clear cases where genes define sporting success: even factors like height are affected by nutrition, medical facilities, etc, and distributed across races.
One well-known genetic factor is the gene ACTN3 associated with fibres, which are greatly beneficial to sprinters and basketball players amongst others, and such genes are particularly common in west Africa. The frequency of the optimum (RR) genotype is 25% in Asians, 36% in European whites, 60% in African-Americans, but 81% in African Bantu.Race, genes, and sports by William Saletan (Dec. 5 2008 7:30 AM) Slate. This is perhaps the clearest and best known example of sporting behaviour where genetic variation is connected to race, although even then it relates to a particular population rather than an entire race in the old-fashioned concept. The relative frequency of the gene in whites and Africans does not fully explain the fact that 77% of National Basketball Association (NBA) players are black, and blacks have 83% of NBA court time.
It is also important not to confuse genetic heritage with nationality, cultural factors, or social status. There are many non-genetic reasons why people of a certain race, ethnicity, or nationality may choose to play specific sports, or excel at them. These include:
* economic factors (which may affect everything from nutrition and health, to ability to afford equipment and tuition, and time to train)
* discrimination (from racist sports clubs restricting membership, to expectations of coaches)
* environment and climate (where you live may affect what sports you do, along with factors such as heat or cold tolerance or lung capacity developed from living at high altitude)
* religions or cultural factors (e.g. requirements that women keep their bodies covered, or stay in the home)
* cultural beliefs about the importance of specific sports or sport in general (anecdotally some cultures celebrate sport as a means to success, while others favour academic achievement at school)
* Cultural ties of a sport to a certain ethnic group. For instance, within South Africa, Rugby Union was long considered the sport of white Afrikaans speaking people while cricket was considered the sport of white people of English descent with soccer the sport of everybody else. This has only begun to change since Apartheid ended.
Sport science academic Ben Oakley attributes the success of east African long-distance runners partly to their experience at high altitude and partly to the cultural factors that encourage running in east Africa more than in high regions of Latin America. According to Oakley there is no specific genetic factor, but their tendency to light, lean bodies probably helps. None of these are unique to the region, but they combine to produce a greater effect.
==Race and medicine==
A topic that has been controversial (for both social and scientific reasons) is so-called "race-based medicine." Currently, some doctors may use racial profiling as a proxy for determining the geographic origins of the patient's lineage to diagnose and treat certain diseases.Race-Based Medicine: A Recipe for Controversy: Is race-based medicine a boon or boondoggle?, Editorial (Jul 31, 2007) Scientific American However, this is not the same thing as "race." The researchers at the Human Genome Project sum it up:Genetic Anthropology, Ancestry, and Ancient Human Migration (Human Genome Project Information Archive)
The word cline is sometimes used to describe this. To put it more succinctly, as the leader of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins does:What We Do and Don't Know About 'Race', 'Ethnicity', Genetics, and Health at the Dawn of the Genome Era. by Francis S. Collins. Nature Genetics Supplement, vol. 36, no. 11, Nov. 2004.
===Clarification: Heuristics versus biology===
It should be noted that all human classifications used in medicine are considered probabilistic heuristics and not perfectly deterministic. While research has shown that many people are extremely effective at classifying themselves based on ethnic origin"Genetic Structure, Self-Identified Race/Ethnicity, and Confounding in Case-Control Association Studies" by Hua Tang, et al. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 2005 Feb; 76(2): 268–275. and so researchers may find "race" to be a convenient label, it fails as a source of attribution: "[R]ace as a social construct may result in differences in treatment that affect health outcomes, but such descriptive use does not imply that "race" can be used as a proxy for biological difference.""Defining Human Differences in Biomedicine" by Maggie Brown PLoS Medicine. 2007. 4(9): e228. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040288.
"Race" will continue to exist as a cultural phenomenon; while great care should be taken in using this construct in medicine, it would be counter-productive to discard potentially useful information, such as the way in which racial identity shapes social, legal and economic outcomes. Unfortunately, the knotty history of "race" makes even the language used a potential source of error — "race realists" often point to a news headline or study that uses "race" sloppily and declare it to be "evidence" of the truth of "race," mastering sufficient jargon to talk about the reality of "genetic clines" and missing the fundamental mismatch between "race" as culture and "race" as genetic destiny.
===Current trends: Against racialism===
Even if race was useful or currently is useful, current medicine is moving towards actually looking at people's genetics, rather than their phenotype (race), which is a poor approximation. As Pena 2011 puts it:S.D.J. Pena. "The fallacy of racial pharmacogenomics". Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research (2011) 44: 268-275
===Case study: Sickle-cell anemia===
Sickle-cell anemia is a famous example of how "race" can mislead. It was originally classified as a "negro disease" due to its high incidence in blacks. However, it was later found that sickle-cell anemia, being an adaptation to the risk of malaria, was also more common in central and western Africans (but not southern Africans) as well as Mediterraneans (Turks, Greeks, etc.) and Indians. Thus, the disease was not an indication of "race," but of geographic ancestry (in this case, areas where malaria was more common).Race and Gene Studies: What Difference Makes a Difference? by Larry Adelman (2003) California Newsreel.
===Race as disease risk categories?===
Classification of race in medical genetics (e.g. "Caucasian", "Black") has been criticised on the grounds studies on disease rarely control environmental factors and so a genetic etiology is assumed without testing. That said, no doctor denies that some diseases and found at high frequency in some populations, while low in others and therefore categorisation may provide useful. While information about ethnicity may be informative for biomedical research: "it is imperative to move away from describing populations according to racial classifications such as 'black', 'white' or 'Asian'… there can be considerable genetic heterogeneity within a region, it is most useful to be as specific as possible about geographic origins, ethnicity or tribal affiliation".Implications of biogeography of human populations for 'race' and medicine by Sarah A. Tishkoff & Kenneth K. Kidd, Nature Genetics 36, S21-S27 (2004). doi:10.1038/ng1438. Those diseases that show considerable inter-group difference, are only confined to local breeding populations, that are often more inbred (e.g. ethno-religious sects such as the Samaritans) rather than large regions, or continents. Dr. Jurgen K. Naggert, a geneticist at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has noted:Do Races Differ? Not Really, DNA Shows Natalie (August 22, 2000) New York Times.
ApoL1 associated kidney diseases are a lot more common in many populations in Africa than Europe and Asia, to the extent they've been incorrectly described as a 'black disease', but because Africa is a massive continent there are some countries (e.g. Ethiopia) where ApoL1 associated kidney diseases are in fact absent: "ApoL1 risk variants nor the sickle-cell allele are 'black' diseases because many 'black' populations do not have these alleles.(Templeton, 2019, p. 443 Another example, α-thalassemia has a high frequency (80%) in an ethnic group in South Asia (Tharu people in Nepal), but very low in others, so it would be meaningless to talk of an 'Asian disease' (Lewontin, 2006).Confusions About Human Races by R. C. Lewontin (Jun 07, 2006). Is Race Real? a web forum organization hoste by the Social Science Research Council.
==Race and forensic anthropology==
Racialists quote forensic anthropologists who are said to be able to estimate ancestry of skeletal remains by continent ("race") with an accuracy of up to 90%. For example, a 1986 textbook by forensic anthropologists claimed that race should be determinable from skull morphology alone with an accuracy of 85-90%.The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine by Wilton Marion Krogman & Mehmet Yaşar İşcan (1986) Charles C. Thomas. 2nd edition. The revised version of the textbook did not make such a claim however, and cited Hefner (2009)Cranial Nonmetric Variation and Estimating Ancestry by Joseph T. Hefner (2009) J. Forensic Sci. 54(5):985-995. doi:10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01118.x. that "'the lack of a methodological approach' used in these methods, and the fact that there are no error rates associated with ancestry prediction using them. He suggested that they have not been investigated with appropriate scientific and legal considerations in mind, and aspects such as inter-observer repeatability have hardly been considered. … forensic anthropologists claim that they can accurately asses ancestry using these [skeletal] traits, and the actual frequencies of these traits are, in fact, much lower than assumed. … [Ousley (2006)] suggested that analysts make a diagnosis of ancestry based on an overall impression of a skull, and then choose the traits post-hoc to support their assumption as a type of confirmation bias."The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine by Mehmet Yaşar İşcan & Maryna Steyn (2013) Charles C. Thomas. 3rd edition. ISBN 0398088780.
===Empirical flaws: Sampling bias===
The high accuracy figures quoted above only apply to limited subsets of a sample. However, this high accuracy figure only matches limited subsets of a sample in each broad continental grouping, and "in cases where independent samples are used to test the methods, allocation accuracies decrease to levels that undermine the applicability of the methods in actual cases." As such, broad groupings like "Mongoloid" have little to no utility.Heard, A. N. (2008). "Non-Metric Assessment of Southeast and Northeast Asian Ancestry in the Forensic Context". M.Sc. Thesis. Michigan State University. 
Two case studies should drive home this point. First consider Birkby 1966, who found a high allocation accuracy for "Native Americans" (>90%) based on an archaeological sample from Knoll, Kentucky.An evaluation of race and sex identification from cranial measurements by Walter H. Birkby. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 24:21–27, 1966. When however indigenous remains were sampled from many other locations, the accuracy for the "Native American" racial category diminished: "the methods performed poorly on the respective American Indian samples (accuracies ranged from 14 to 30%), and confirmed Birkby’s conclusion that the Indian Knoll sample cannot be considered a proxy for the pattern of variation in numerous populations that are included in the group American Indian".Is It Possible to Escape Racial Typology in Forensic Identification? by Albanese, J., Saunders, S. R. (2006). In: Schmitt, A., Pinheiro, J. (eds.). Forensic Anthropology and Medicine. Humana.
Similarly, Smay & Armelagos 2000 write:Smay, D., Armelagos, G. (2000). "Galileo Wept: a Critical Assessment of the Use of Race in Forensic Anthropology (pdf), (dotx)". Transforming Anthropology. 9(2): 19-29.
===Empirical flaws: Inconsistent methods===
The high accuracy rate claim for racial determination methods is also questionable since different methods have a tendency to produce different results:Can Ancestry be Consistently Determined From the Skeleton? by Sierp, I., Henneberg, M. (2015). Anthropological Review. 78(1): 21-31.
===Empirical flaws: Gradients of features within races===
The fact that there are gradients of features within so-called races is widely recognized and contradicts discrete racial boundaries. As an example, let us consider Asia. According to Wu Rukang and Wu Xinzhi (1997): "The cephalic, facial, and nasal indices, plus stature, show clinal variation. From north to south [China], the cephalic index and the stature are seen to decrease, while the facial and nasal indices increase.""China". In: Spencer, F. (ed.). History of Physical Anthropology (vol. 1). New York: Garland.
This can easily be seen with an example. Ling & Wong (2008) provide a table of shoveling among East Asian populations, with results for tooth I1 reproduced below:Ling, J. Y. K., Wong, R. W. K. (2008). "Incisal Morphology of Southern Chinese". The Open Anthropology Journal. 1: 19-25.
Ethnic Group 	Gender	Shovel (%)	Semi-Shovel (%)	Trace (%)	None (%)
Southern Chinese 	M 	7.0 	66.0 	27.0 	1.0
Southern Chinese 	F 	3.0 	68.0 	27.0 	1.0
Taipei Chinese 	M 	75.9 	20.1 	4.0 	
Taipei Chinese 	F 	85.3 	13.2 	1.5 	
Chinese 	M 	66.2 	23.4 	1.8 	7.8
Chinese 	F 	82.7 	12.5 	1.0 	3.8
Japanese 	M 	76.1 	15.1 	3.1 	2.3
Japanese 	F 	74.1 	16.2 	2.7 	1.1
Liverpool Chinese	 	77.5 	21.7 	0.8 	0
Eskimos 	 	37.5 	47.5 	15.0 	0
Mongolians 	 	62.5 	29.0 	8.5 	
Aleuts 	M 	64.4 	31.1 	4.5 	45
Aleuts 	F 	60.0 	40.0 	30 	
Full shoveling spans from 85.3% to 3.0% among Chinese populations alone.
===Theoretical flaws: Region versus race===
Sauer (1992) notes that "to estimate, with varying degrees of specificity, a person’s place of ancestry from their physical features" is "not a vindication of the [biological] race concept".Forensic Anthropology and the Concept of Race: If Races Don't Exist, Why Are Forensic Anthropologists So Good at Identifying Them? by Sauer, N. J. (1992). Social Science & Medicine. 34(2):107-111. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(92)90086-6.
C. Loring Brace makes the same point that "region, does not mean race".Region Does Not Mean Race: Reality Versus Convention in Forensic Anthropology by Brace, C. L. (1995). Journal of Forensic Sciences. 40(2): 171-175. More recently terms such as "geographical ancestry", or "ancestral population" have replaced race in forensic literature.
===Motivation of forensic anthropologists===
If race is so meaningless, why do so many forensic anthropologists still use it? The simple answer is that laypeople often require them to do so. Smay & Armelagos 2000 write:Smay, D., Armelagos, G. (2000). "Galileo Wept: a Critical Assessment of the Use of Race in Forensic Anthropology (pdf), (dotx)". Transforming Anthropology. 9(2): 19-29.
=="Lewontin's fallacy"==
Most modern racialists redefine race as a "genetic cluster" by continent which captures a fairly small amount of variation (<10%) between groups of populations. Molecular anthropologists such as Jonathan Marks are confused by this re-definition because it is so far removed from biological taxonomy, and the traditional meaning of race. Michael P. Muehlenbein writes:"Ten Facts about Human Variation" by Jonathan Marks, in Human Evolutionary Biology, edited by Michael P. Muehlenbein (2010). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052170510X.
The geographical pattern to human interpopulation variation, matches an almost continuous gradient/isolation-by-distance modelEvidence for Gradients of Human Genetic Diversity Within and Among Continents by David David Serre & Svante Pääbo. Genome Research 2004. 14: 1679-1685. doi:10.1101/gr.2529604.Relethford, John. "Global patterns of isolation by distance based on genetic and morphological data." Human Biology 76.4 (2004): 499-513.Clines Without Classes: How to Make Sense of Human Variation by Fujimura, J. H., Bolnick, D. A., Rajagopalan, R., Kaufman, J. S., Lewontin, R. C. (2014). Sociological Theory. 32(3): 208-227.Statement on Race, UNESCO: Clines, Clusters, and the Effect of Study Design on the Inference of Human Population Structure by Noah A. Rosenberg, et al. PLOS Genetics (December 9, 2005) doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0010070.Handley, L. Manica, A., Goudet, J., Balloux, F. (2007). "Going the Distance: Human Population Genetics in a Clinal World". Trends in Genetics. 23(9): 432-439. However much of this discontinuity is found within continents, not between them"Zones of sudden genetic variation exist, often in correspondence with barriers to gene flow, both physical and cultural, but they almost never completely surround a region. Over much of the planet, clinal variation is the rule, with genetic characteristics of the various regions changing gradually into one another." ("Genetic Variances Between Human Groups" by Guido Barbujani & Giulietta Di Benedetto, in Genes, Fossils, and Behaviour, edited by Peter Donnelly & Robert A. Foley (2001). IOS Press. ISBN 9051994494.)"The genetic exchanges occurred in the course of the frequent contacts have resulted in a smooth, continuous variation of many genetic parameters. As a consequence, zones of sharp genetic change are not the rule, but the exception; most human populations are not surrounded by clear genetic boundaries." (Genetic Basis of Human Biodiversity: An Update by Guido Barbujani & Vincenza Colonna, in Biodiversity Hotspots, 2011. Springer, ISBN 9783642209918.) — which again renders the ideas of (e.g.) "white" and "black" as irrelevant.
Racialists argue that while overall genetic variation between continental population divisions is <10%, this rather little human population structure still supports race classification (contra Lewontin, 1972).
They quote Edwards (2003) who found by looking at how gene loci are correlated: "probability of misclassification falls off as the number of gene loci increases". It is notable Edwards in his paper does not dispute Lewontin's statistical data on various blood polymorphisms, writing: "There is nothing wrong with Lewontin's statistical analysis of variation, only with the belief that it is relevant to classification". As a result, as Marks (2010) explains, there is no "Lewontin fallacy":Marks, 2010.
What Lewontin (or Marks) and Edwards are discussing are two completely different things. Of course genetic correlations exist which can pinpoint someone's geographical ancestry, but as Marks asks: "What is unclear is what this has to do with race", and concludes: "Lewontin's analysis shows that such groups [races] do not exist in the human species, and Edwards's critique does not contradict that interpretation" (emphasis added). What this means is that Edwards is re-defining the race concept to a far weaker hypothesis, which is not how race is commonly understood in biological taxonomy: Fujimura 2014 writes:
What is the significance of the "proportion of variation" (FST) approach? It measures phylogenetic 'treeness' via genetic differentiation i.e. whether populations reflect a common evolutionary history or intraspecific distinctive lineage, which is taxonomically meaningful. Human populations however "have such little structure that ‘treeness’ is not demonstrated and phylogenetic models are invalid". As Lewontin 1974 himself writes:Richard Lewontin, The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change (1974)
===FST===
FST (or the ) is the ratio of the genetic allele variance between different subpopulations (S) the variance within the total population (T):
: F_{ST} = \frac{\sigma^2_S}{\sigma^2_T} 
Wright (1978) calculated FST values under 5% indicate little genetic differentiation between populations, 5% to 15%, moderate genetic differentiation, 15% to 25%, great genetic differentiation, and above 25%, very great differentiation which is the threshold for subspecies (races). Human continental population divisions fall at the lower end of moderate genetic differentiation (<10%), while demes and ethnic groups under 5%: "Hence, as judged by the criterion in the nonhuman literature, the human FST value is too small to have taxonomic significance under the traditional [definition of] subspecies".Human Races: A Genetic and Evolutionary Perspective by Alan R. Templeton (1998). American Anthropologist 100(3):632-650.
===Muddying the waters===
In order to discredit the science against racialism, it is a common racialist tactic to compare race with some other (supposed) biological characteristic. For example, as one commenter on The Right Stuff writes:The Rational View on Race? by Sean Last (May 18, 2015) (comment by 8theist, ca. 2015) The Right Stuff.
The commenter fails to note that human sexes are (traditionally) differentiated on the grounds of certain attributes which have decidedly low rates of variation within a sex. (Or: the genes considered "female" almost always result in an organ-level difference from those for "male".) In other words: the variation in height is not what maleness and femaleness are based on, and so variation within them doesn't matter. In contrast, the variation in certain traits (eg, skin color) are precisely what race is based upon, and so variation within one "race" being greater than between races makes it functionally meaningless.
This comment also happens to display how ignorant racialists are of basic statistics. The commenter here uses range as a measure of variation (and even then, only an approximate range using numbers taken out of the commenter's ass), when in fact variance and standard deviation are far more commonly used as reliable measures of variation.
==Identification of race via genetics==
Similar to creationist quote-mines of evolutionist literature, online racialists often do the same with Witherspoon et al. 2007:
The above paragraph is what they spam, especially the bold. What they don't post is the paragraph that immediately follows:
Two individuals from separate populations can then be genetically more similar than two individuals from the same population (with >10,000 SNP's). In other words: even with an incredibly stringent set of criteria (think about the last time you sat down and listed out 10,000 genetic reasons that someone was a member of their race), race still isn't a binary, but a gradient. Moreover, at the point where you are using >10,000 polymorphisms, races like "white" and "black" have utterly ceased to exist and are replaced with innumerable smaller groups.Imagine a hooded Klansman saying: "Fuck those Group 1467 bastards. I can't believe that they inherited a statistically significantly different set of polymorphisms."
==Claims of bias in anthropology==
==What now?==
Race isn't biologically useful. But it still carries substantial social importance that we can't just wish away. For now, the best option may be to educate people about the insignificance of race and (as racial parity is achieved) hope race fades from social significance. As Cartmill 1998 writes:
==Notable racialists==
*Benjamin Rush: Rush was, rather interestingly, one of the Founding Fathers and an abolitionist. He believed that blacks suffered from a disease called "negritude," supposedly a form of leprosy, that could be "cured" and would result in turning their skin white.In Our Own Voices: African American Stories of Oppression, Survival and Recovery in the Mental Health System by Vanessa Jackson, pp. 1-36, 4-8. This led to his attempts to develop quack "cures" for "negritude." 
* Expanding on Rush's work, Cartwright argued that drapetomania was also a physical illness that could be diagnosed through the appearance of lesions on the skin. No doubt this had nothing to do with the backbreaking manual labor and frequent whippings and beatings slaves endured. Cartwright coined two pseudo-psychological diagnoses that rationalized and justified slavery. The first he called "drapetomania," which was allegedly an illness causing slaves to run away from their masters. Conveniently for the slave masters, much of the "treatment" for this "illness" consisted of whipping. The second "diagnosis" was "dysaethesia aethiopica", or laziness.
*Hbdchick: isWas? As of January 2017 Hbdchick's blog has been on indefinite hiatus, although she is still active on Twitter. an alt-right "human biodiversity" blogger who attempts to give "scientific" racism credibility by presenting herself as an innocent bookworm fascinated with human variation. Like many other bigots who try to rebrand racialist and racist ideologies online through "human biodiversity" or "race realism" blogs and forums, Hbdchick describes herself as a geek who became an "HBDer" after reading books on "Eskimos and Indians, that sort of thing – and I was absolutely transfixed by them!"Interview with HBD chick Books on Eskimos and Indians somehow led her to the work of those who promote racial differences, presenting 19th-century pseudoscience as credible research, and quoting extensively from some of the most polarizing, controversial and racist researchers. She regularly quotes from Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve, the 20th-century book that attempted to reframe understanding of society through the lens of IQ scores.Racism has a new name: HBD Like HBD bloggers in general she is known for deleting all dissenting opinion however polite and sophisticated. Unsurprisingly, she also doesn't seem to like irRationalWiki very much.
*J. Philippe Rushton: Advocate of "Life History Theory" that proposes that all socially desirable personality and intellectual traits are concentrated in the white and Asian races, whereas all the antisocial and undesirable traits are concentrated in black people. Repeatedly criticised in academia for sloppy scholarship including using questionable sources of information, including the Penthouse Forum.Eggs, eggplants and eggheads: a rejoinder to Rushton by Weizmann, F., Wiener, et al. (1991). Canadian Psychology, 32 (1), 43-50 doi:10.1037/h0078958.
*Richard Lynn: Eugenics advocate who recently wrote a paper claiming that black people have longer penises than whites, who in turn are better endowed than Asians.Rushton’s r–K life history theory of race differences in penis length and circumference examined in 113 populations by Richard Lynn. Personality and Individual Differences. Volume 55, Issue 3, July 2013, Pages 261–266. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.02.016. This was based on Rushton's "Goldilocks" theory of race: "Orientals have big brains but small genitalia, Africans have small brains but big genitalia, but Europeans Are Just Right."The Penile Economics of Ethnicity (March 3, 2012) Ethnic Muse. One of the key sources of data used in this paper was the World Penis Size Site,World Penis Average Size Studies Database an anonymously compiled source that includes a lot of made-up data and bogus references.WorldPenisSize: analysis of listed sources (May 1, 2012) Ethnic Muse. Lynn has also stated that "incompetent cultures" need "phasing out."Racism Resurgent: How Media Let The Bell Curve's Pseudo-Science Define the Agenda on Race by Jim Naureckas, Fairness in Accuracy and Reporting, January/February 1995. Just to clear up any doubt about which cultures he thinks need "phasing out" he writes: "Who can doubt that the Caucasoids and the Mongoloids are the only two races that have made any significant contributions to civilization?"Race Differences in Intelligence: A Global Perspective by Richard Lynn (1991). Mankind Quarterly, 31(3):255-296.
*Donald Templer: Authored a book on penises used as an additional reference by Richard Lynn even though Templer has no qualifications in urology. Advocates the voluntary sterilization of welfare recipients on eugenics grounds.AmRen Conference Held in Tennessee by Henry Wolff (March 19, 2012) American Renaissance.Is Size important? by Donald I. Templer (2002). CeShore, ISBN 1585010324.
*: American racist, eugenicist, anti-immigration campaigner and conspiracy theorist, author of many books including The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy. He was enormously influential in early 20th century America, and is satirised by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, but a lengthy and enthusiastic visit to Nazi Germany in 1939-40 caused his reputation to fall after America entered World War II.
*Varg Vikernes: Norwegian musician, arsonist, murderer, gun lover, authoritarian wingnut, Neopagan, Neo-Nazi, White nationalist, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, anti-vaxxer, prepper and former YouTube personality, banned recently from the platform.
*David Duke: former Grand Wizard (what?) of the Ku Klux Klan (yes, really).
*Stefan Molyneux: former YouTube personality, banned from the platform in 2020.
*Jared Taylor: editor of American Renaissance, a magazine for white nationalism that he founded
*Richard Spencer
*Sargon of Akkad
*Simon Webb
*Nazis
*Metapedia
*Human Phenotypes
*Human Varieties
==External links==
*Academic sources:
:*American Anthropological Association's statement on "race"
:*Is Race "Real"? a forum by the Social Science Research Council
:*Institute for the Study of Academic Racism
:*Anthropology and Race, Anthropology Report
:*Biological Anthropology: Human Nature, Race, Evolution
:*Biological Races in Humans
*Popular sources:
:*IQ and Race (The Skeptic's Dictionary)
:*Biologically Speaking, Race Doesn't Exist, Fox News (2002)
:*THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS RACE, Newsweek (2014)
:*Classifying humans into races the biggest mistake in the history of science, ABC (2016)
*Videos:
:*Is race a social invention?: A video discussion by a biological anthropologist going into the problems with attempting to define race biologically
:*What Can DNA Really Tell Us About Race?, Troy Duster, UCtelevision
:*Race, the human spectrum
*
*/r/Coontown's list of human biodiversity resources, debunked
*A series of comic panels on the science (and lack thereof) of racialism, TheNib
*Sources and Studies to Debunk Racism and "Race Realism", r/BreadTube
*The Source Library's section on Racialism/Race Realism
*Debunking Myths About Race, Human Evolution and Intelligence
==Further reading==
*Edgar, Heather and Keith Hunley. "Race reconciled?: How biological anthropologists view human variation". American Journal of Physical Anthropology, May 2009, Volume 139, Issue 1, Pages 1–4.Edgar, Heather and Keith Hunley, "Race reconciled?: How biological anthropologists view human variation", American Journal of Physical Anthropology, May 2009, Volume 139, Issue 1, Pages 1–4. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20995. Full quote:
*Lieberman, Leonard, et al. "The decline of race in American physical anthropology". Przegląd Antropologiczny – Anthropological Review. 2003, Vol. 66, 3-21.Lieberman, Leonard, et al. "The decline of race in American physical anthropology". Przegląd Antropologiczny – Anthropological Review. 2003, Vol. 66, 3-21. Full quote: TLDR: The reason racialism is challenged is perhaps because of political correctness; the evidence on which it is challenged is purely scientific. 
*Genetically Speaking, Race Doesn't Exist In Humans, EurekAlert (1998)
*Lynn B. Jorde and Stephen P. Wooding. Genetic variation, classification and 'race'. Nature Genetics 36, S28 - S33 (2004)
*Kenneth M. Weiss and Stephanie M. Fullerton. Racing Around, Getting Nowhere. Evolutionary Anthropology 14:165–169 (2005)
*Gurdasani, Deepti, et al. "The African genome variation project shapes medical genetics in Africa." Nature 517.7534 (2015): 327-332.
* R Bhopal and L Donaldson. White, European, Western, Caucasian, or what? Inappropriate labeling in research on race, ethnicity, and health. Am J Public Health. 1998 September; 88(9): 1303–1307.
*How to Argue with a Racist, Adam Rutherford (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021) ISBN 9781474611251. Book going into more depth on this by a geneticist. If only he knew what a crank is.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Alt-right
Category:Anthropology
Category:Discrimination
Category:Euphemisms
Category:Fascism
Category:Folklore
Category:Nazism
Category:Neo-Nazism
Category:Pseudoscience
Category:Racism