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Troy, rather than destroy the integrity of Nah's thread on "thickness" I figured I'd start this thread to continue our discussion on race and whether or not it's a social construct. "Pioneer, once the human genome was sequenced it became plain to everyone that there is only one race of people on planet earth. Race is indeed, an arbitrary social construct. In fact I wish our government would get out of the business of using it." I believe that humans are all of the same SPECIES, but definately of different races/breeds. Let's examine the 2 terms seperately out of the context of this conversation: Social Construct: a social mechanism, phenomenon, or category created and developed by society; a perception of an individual, group, or idea that is 'constructed' through cultural or social practice http://dictionary.re...ocial construct According to this definition, a social construct is something that is both created and developed by society. In other words, God or "nature" if you will didn't create it but it was created as a result of human ideology. Race: 2 a : a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock b : a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics 3 a : an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also : a taxonomic category (as a subspecies) representing such a group b : breed c : a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits http://www.merriam-w...dictionary/race According to definition 2a , 3b, and 3c.....race is indeed about PHYSICAL traits, things that are not created from the mind of humans but are genetic in origin and come from God Himself or atleast nature. Now what you said about the government getting out of the business of distinguising races....I actually entertained that idea for a while. However this is the common practice in a lot of Latin American nations, especially Cuba. Where they just say everyone is "Cubano" or "Puerto Ricano"....in other words, they seek to unite their nation of the basis of culture rather than race. The problem with this is, in a society where race isn't definied it's too easy to practice racial discrimination without a way to prove it. In many if not most Latin American nations, people of African and Indian decent are heavily discriminated against but since they don't consider themselves Black or Indian but "Columbian" or "Venuzualan" they don't have the words to even formulate let alone articulate their argument. Since "race" doesn't exist in those countries, those who suffer from a non-existant "racism" are forced to suffer in silence.