"Race-specific Bio-weapon?"?

Question

Now, before you go all wierd on me, I KNOW there is no such thing.
I was reading something from one of my friends, who is something of a conspiracy buff about "race-specific bioweapons", and although I know there is no such thing, I was wondering WHY?
I have a pretty good grasp of basic genetics, and was hoping somebody here can provide me with a somewhat technical explanation of why such things are the work of science fiction and not real science, so that the next time I see my friend, I can explain to her why she is being silly about this.
To all:
Thanks in advance for your time.

Emucompboy's answer was pretty much what I was looking for.

If anyone can expand out a bit, I would appreciate it. I am pretty good with science, so don't worry too much about going over my head.

I think I am close to what I need, thank you all for your answers, they have been spot on.
I will leave this open for a day or two, and if anybody has a good link to a scientific paper that speaks to how biologically irrelevant the concept of "race" is, I would also appreciate it.

I have gotten 4 good answers that I wish I could give points to each, so it will be a hard choice to make at the end.

Answer 1

Your bioweapon would have to latch onto a race-specific cell surface antigen, and there aren't any. Sorry.

You might be able to train a chimp to shoot only men wearing kilts, but that's not going to do in an entire race. (Not to mention, chimps are notoriously bad shots).

Answer 2

You first problem would be to figure out exactly where to draw the line between one race and another. No small task. The reason why many people can 'pass' for a race different from their own is that there aren't really any features that are restricted to one race alone.

So, for example, you might accurately say that MORE black people have sickle cell anemia than other races, but not all black people have those genes nor is everyone with those genes black. You might accurately say that more Irish people have green eyes than other peoples, but not all Irish people have those genes nor is everyone with those genes Irish. And so it goes for ANY trait you might think of.

So you COULD make a weapon that TENDED to get one race more than another. But given that there's not really any one trait - or even any set of traits - that DEFINE a race, your race-specific weapon will be inaccurate and incomplete at best.

If you look in scientific literature, any time any study tries to compare anything on the basis of race they cobble together a very loose definition that almost always ends up being a point of contention for the study as a whole. Many biologists even argue that the concept of 'race' as a whole as applied to humans has no substantial value and should be abandoned.

Answer 3

It has been said that the average genetic difference between the Scots and Japanese is less than that between one Scot and another. So this means a virus or whatever keyed to some protein predominantly found in humans is likely to affect people from all over the world, in addition to those it is directed at.

In addition migrations in the distant past could have spread the genetic factor across much of the world. For instance something directed at Chinese could also affect Japanese, Mongolians, Siberians, Malays, possibly Polynesians and Native Americans.
Something directed at Europeans would also affect most of north and South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It might also affect a large proportion of the population of India. Something directed at Arabs would also affect many Jews and much of the population of Egypt, north Africa generally and even Spain.

It is true that some genetic disorders are more concentrated in some populations than others, but the difference is marginal. If it is one in ten thousand among some groups, it might be one in fifteen thousand in others.

Answer 4

One reason why that's quite impossible is because there is no single set of genes that distinguishes 'white' or 'black' people from everybody else. Genetic variation is simply too big. In fact, genetic variation between 'races' has turned out to be much smaller than variation between individuals. Meaning, the odds that any given person's genes match up to great extent to that of another person, irrespective of their 'race', are just as great as the chances of two people of the same 'race' matching up.
Also, when we really take this 'race' business serious, we have to acknowledge that there are rather more of them as we think. There is celts, norse, mediterranean, persian, arabian, turkish and slav races to name most caucasians. The list of Asian and African 'races' is even greater.
Now, you get onto one of these 'races' and notice differenced in outward appearance between communities. Then, between villages. Then, between different families and so on.
The thing is, because all these 'races' are distinguished through outward appearance (not genetics, mind), this game can be carried on right down to the level of individual. So all this 'race' business is bunk really and has largely been dropped in biology, which is why I write it like 'this'.

Answer 5

she is not silly! its a conspiracy!!!