[rmc]

Humans perceive and classify race. No-one's disagreeing on that. "Race is a social construct" means that it isn't based 100% on biology or genetics.

Traffic laws are also social constructs. Yet we can build machines to follow them.

[eeZah7Ux]

> Humans perceive and classify race

No. Some cultures on Earth define "race" with various, conflicting standards. Some don't even have that concept.

[cmrdporcupine]

Actually, no, _some_ humans in certain places / cultures currently perceive and classify race.

The Roman empire spanned swathes of North Africa and had major centres there and traded with subsaharan Africa. And traded with the 'orient' all the way to China.

Their writings don't make racial classifications. They don't even remark much on skin colour or other features.

Visual features were known, but not considered that significant. And later in the empire people from all over the world became Romans via citizenship and what we now call "race" never factored into it.

[gotchange]

Yeah, Humans perceive and classify race (accurately or inaccurately) and that's why it can't be a reliable indicator or cornerstone for any reliable scientific system esp. when taking into account the "fluid" or "conflicting" nature of some of the prevailing definitions of races out there.