The objective existence of race

Abstract

There are currently two very different concepts of race in terms of negation and identity. The emergence of these different perspectives of race is related to its definition. Scholars who deny the existence of human races regard different races as being different species in biology. However, the ethnic problem is an academic issue that can be discussed and the concept of race is still used widely in social life. Race should not be confused with racism. All modern humans on Earth are the same species. Races are human populations with common genetic traits. The concept of race is not a biological concept of race, but a geographic concept of race. After the birth of modern humans, they dispersed and migrated to different parts of the world. The environment in different regions determined the genetic variation of the migration branches of each population. Gradually, different geographical species of modern humans were formed. This is what we are talking about when we speak of race. The divisions of race do not depend on only one trait, but on the comprehensive consideration of multiple traits. The academic community uses macroscopic morphological indices, such as skin color, hair color, eye color, nose shape, lip shape, head shape, facial shape, skin texture, earwax type, and blood type, to describe and classify human races. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms and gene copy number polymorphisms contribute to the formation of different races. Through the measurement and observation of the head and face morphological index and stature of the Mongolian, Northern Han, and Dai populations, this study found significant differences in the head and face characteristics between North Asian, East Asian, and South Asian types. The North Asian-type ethnic groups were found to have taller stature, a wider head, a narrower nose, and a thinner lip, while South Asian-type ethnic groups were of shorter stature, with wider noses and thicker lips. The head and facial features of the East Asian-type ethnic groups are between the North and South Asian-type ethnic groups. Scholars may deny the existence of human races or that races are different species, but they cannot deny the existence of different modern geographical races or their obvious morphological differences. Since the differences between races are geographic, the genomic differences between individual races are naturally small; thus, 99.9% of the DNA sequences from different races are identical. However, this difference of about 0.1% of DNA sequences leads to the division of races. Although the speed of integration between ethnic groups is currently increasing, the differences in traits between different races are still obvious. The main racial characteristics have not disappeared and the differences between races will persist for a long time. This study proposes that the concept of race is outdated and does not actually conform to its objective status.