Are racial categories really accurate?

Question

Categories such as: White, Black etc..
Because I have meet people from East India that are darker then the darkest Africans but they aren't considered Black.

Answer 1

Read this article, it describes how the term "race" and the classification of humans came about.

Anthropologists and geneticists know that we have far more in common genetically with people of "different races" than we have in common with people who share the "same race".

Race classification is obsolete, always was and is today.

http://www.modernhumanorigins.net/anth372.html

When modern humans migrated out of Africa and spread across the world, different physical traits developed which corresponded to the climate where they lived, and the food they ate. The physical differences between humans is specific to where they live. Darker skin is better adapted to hot sunny environment because the melanin in the skin protects from the blazing sun, paler skin is better adapted to a climate where there is little sun and colder temperature. The same with nose shape, hair type, height and limb length.

So technically there is no such thing as a "race" the only race we belong to is human. Race only relates to the words that people gave to others to classify them, and unfortunately some people rely on that to stereotype others and put them into categories.

If you have any other questions about anthropology you should google them.

Answer 2

Race, in a biological sense (as it's often used) does not exist. It just doesn't. Skin color evolved as a response to different conditions found across the globe. The "catagories" are all socially-based, which is why you can find people darker or lighter than the so-called "example".

This article is a good one: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0211/feature2/online_extra.html

Answer 3

I hear there are:

1) Caucasian
2) Mongoloid
3) *******

The rest is just ethnicity's I guess. Dark pigment must not be the only criteria for *******. Arabs are considered Caucasian but colour wise they run the rainbow.

I don't know what determines race or ethnicity's, I'd like to know though.

Answer 4

I agree that there is a difference culturally between American blacks and Africans or Caribbean people who've immigrated extra at the instant. whether, i think of race defines extra of a definite set of actual features, extra beneficial than the cultural factors of someone. And while human beings discriminate, now and back that is because of the fact they are going via visual charm incredibly than behaviour.

Answer 5

No, they're not accurate at all. Plus, conceptions of races vary across cultures, so how could one culture get it right?

You need to get into genetics and really complicated anthropological stuff to determine accurate races.

Answer 6

No, they are not accurate. They were made so many years ago when people were a lot more ignorant and not the most intelligent

Answer 7

With our ever more inter-mingling global culture, hopefully we will all one day just be a nice medium brown and we can forget all the racial nonsense.

Answer 8

I hate racial profiling I which there was no such thing.

Answer 9

southeast asians don't want to be lumped in same category as blacks/africans. they don't want to be even associated with being black/african.

eventhough there are some dark southeast asians they have different features than africans/"blacks."

Answer 10

No not really. I have meet a very dark skin Spanish person, so no there are not accurate.