Reply #26: For one thing

[Time for change]

I'm an epidemiologist. Epidemiologists study the causes of disease in people according to innumerable different characteristics. One of the characteristics we study is what we call race. Different races have very different susceptabilities to many different diseases, for many reasons. We study those reasons in order to understand why different people have different susceptabilities, so that we can figure out how to prevent those diseases.

In that respect, we find the concept of race helpful. I take it that your objection to the concept of race is that you believe that the concept itself leads to racism. I tend to disagree with that, though it's possible that you are right to a greater or lesser extent. But I don't think that refusing to acknowledge our differences is helpful.

When you say that there is only one race of humans on this planet, I think that what you mean to say is that we all have a common humanity, and that should be recognized. I agree with that, and I tried to emphasize that in this post (in my discussion of empathy), though not in those words. But that doesn't mean that there aren't differences, or that we can't learn useful things from studying those differences.

Still, it is worth pointing out that our differences are far less than racists would have us believe. That's why I noted ignorance as one of the major causes.