There are competing definitions of race. Some are slang, some are scientific. Some are ambiguous and some are precise. Some are falsifiable and some exist purely on the strength of those that assert them.
Personally, I prefer the scientific, the precise, the falsifiable.
This is one particular definition, from a third-year zoology course from Olkahoma State University which I reckon is pretty good.
"Definition of Race: A race is a geographically circumscribed population or set of populations that differ from all other populations of a species.
A Related Term: Subspecies; a race given formal taxonomic recognition by assigning a subspecies name."
(http://zoology.okstate.edu/zoo_lrc/zool3113/Lecture7.htm)
Now I reckon these are pretty good. But because this would invalidate The Enlightenment's desire for races to exist he has had to choose vague, imprecise and changing terms.
In some cases he refers to the "white" race, at other times the "Northern European" race (who, apparently inhabited the "North circumpolar polar region" - hail to the Vikings of Alaska!), and other times still there are Mediterranean races, at other times it appears to be based on nationality (the Ukranian race).
The shifting definition was certainly confusing.
Through all these contradictions there is one definition which actually has some degree of genetic precision and can be determined for each individual without ambiguity:
"Race is simply ancestry", the Enlightenment has claimed.
Well that's not normally sufficient to reach taxonomical standards, but let's use it for the moment as I must agree that it is precise, unambiguous, falsifiable. If that's the standard one wants to use as a distinguishing between the different races I can accept it, albeit it
may take a while for the idea to catch on with the rest of the scientific community.
Because if we define 'race' in this precise and unambiguous manner, that racial difference is based on genetic difference of ancestry, this means that the only people who has exactly the same genetic ancestry are those who come from his biological mother and father. I suppose it means there's a few billion different races in the world.
Biologists and geneticists should take note: this means they'll be on the gravy train for a long time.
And the Enlightenment, who is so concerned with preserving "his" race and loves "his" race, can actually do something about it.
Go fuck your sister.
Originally posted to usenet group aus.culture.true-blue