Racial Categorization

1)  Brainstorming

What?       Existence of races as sociopolitical constructs and of geographical races genetic   variation, ancestry, racial categorization

Who?         R.C. Lewontin

                   Armand Marie Leroi

                   Genetically different individuals and populations all

                   over the world

              

How?          A list of benefits of racial categorization

                    - name for a group,
                    - improvement of medical care and medical treatment,
                    - creation of a 'genetic recipe',
                    - protection of marginalized groups

                  
                   Arguments against racial categorization 

                    - genetic variation from individual to individual,
                    - no objective way to form human races,
                    - no clear criterion or genetic boundaries,
                    - ancestry versus race

When?        Leroi 2005 

                     Lewontin   2006

Where?      In Europe and in the United States

Why?          Scientific discussion about the existence of racial categorization for    

                     humans, animals and plants.

2) Thesis Statement

                Researchers and scientists work steadily on the question whether racial categories do really exist. Subdividing populations systematically into smaller groups, people have built up a concept that still has its impact on our social and political understanding of population and society.

In 2005, Armand Marie Leroi’s essay “A Family Tree in Every Gene” has been published in “The New York Times”. In his opinion, races exist and even offer several benefits. But do they? Can populations really be put into groups according to several visible or genetic differences?

This controversial question has been discussed heatedly and there are different opinions on the question whether populations can be grouped into races because of genetic variation and a striking appearance.

In my opinion, genetic variation is not a valid proof for racial categorization. In many cases, two individuals from one population differ much more genetically than to members of completely different populations. Additionally, more and more people migrate from one place to another and it is just normal to have ancestors of different origins.  Thus, a race would only be based on a few visible characters which cannot be considered as a scientific argument.