[nyolfen]

race is strongly correlated with major continental population groups; e.g black-identifying americans have roughly 400x african genetic markers vs white-identifying, forensic anthropologists can identify the continental ancestry of skeletons at ~80%, etc. it is of course a human and particularly bureaucratic taxonomy so it breaks down at the margins, but it points to something that exists in reality and can be used to establish useful correlations (for instance, medical issues) on average.

[rfrey]

Nobody argued that country-of-origin isn't real, or that there aren't physical attributes related to the physical location of one's ancestry.

The Irish used to be a "race" unto themselves. Jewish people still are according to many people (I wonder if an Ethiopian Jew is of the Black race or the Jewish race?). Ukrainians were called their own race in my part of the world, Western Canada, during an immigration wave 100 years ago.

I suppose it's possible that all those old guys had it wrong and used "race" improperly, but we're doing it right now because we use skin tone as a proxy for race instead of other factors.

[nyolfen]

yes, as i mentioned 'race' is mostly used as a bureaucratic (and hence political) taxonomy, and under different conditions the lines may be drawn differently, but this doesn't mean that all categories are arbitrary. there is a deeper biological reality that our categories grope towards.

[zuminator]

All of that is true, but it has little to do with why race exists as a persistent meme. We don't segregate ourselves by blood type, height, or BMI, even though they have certain genetic and medical correlates.

The purpose of race is social differentiation, not medical. That's why identifying himself as mongrel got the author in trouble. He was punking the social order. That's what needed to be upheld, not their data codes. Doubtful they would've grilled him for hours for writing an EBCDIC-incompatible circumflexed vowel in his surname.

That's also why identifying oneself as mixed-race can be problematic. People don't know where to place you in the pecking order, and if you're on their team. It's not like people are concerned for your health, "B-b-but if you put the wrong race you might get a contraindicated blood pressure medication in 30 years!!!"