Race is a Meaningful Descriptor of Human Biological Variation

Discuss Whether You Think Race is a Meaningful Descriptor of Human Biological Variation
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Discuss Whether You Think Race is a Meaningful Descriptor of Human Biological Variation
Introduction
Race and racism make for one of the most contentious issues across the world’s social, political, and economic dimensions. Humanity’s clamor for superiority across the stated domains is a characteristic of a wide range of systems or constructs developed towards ensuring dominance over other species and even its own members. That desire for superiority created divisions among human beings as individuals and groups sought to develop identities for themselves through which they would achieve that desired outcome of superiority. These divisions gave birth to what is commonly referred to as social constructs, which include race, ethnicity, class, and even one’s status in society or a community. However, race makes for one of the most dominant social constructs through which human beings identify themselves and exert their superiority on other individuals and groups in societies around the world CITATION Gra21 \l 1033 (Goodman, 2021). The identification of human beings based on physical features such as skin color constitutes the basis for racial classifications CITATION Gra21 \l 1033 (Goodman, 2021). Classifications of human beings based on race also entail other observable features such as language, culture, historical background, socioeconomic status, and even religion. The outlined observable features for racial classification are devoid of common biological traits upon which one would further define their racial identities. For this reason, this paper seeks to defend the position that race is not a meaningful descriptor of human biological variation. Provided herein is a comprehensive evaluation and overview of evidence towards showing that race lacks the threshold to be a description of human biological variation.
Human Evolution
The evolution of human beings makes for one of the pieces of evidence against race being a meaningful descriptor of their biological variation. Evolution refers to the changes in the distribution of alleles’ frequencies or the different compositions of a gene over time CITATION Gib10 \l 1033 (Gibbons, 2010). The difference in allele frequencies, for instance, accounts for the differences in the hair colors and textures since it is the same gene that is responsible for or rather codes for hair in all human beings. The change of allele frequencies over time is a function of four key factors; mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow CITATION Gib10 \l 1033 (Gibbons, 2010). Mutation functions to introduce a new variant of alleles in human beings and initially occurs at a very low frequency, while natural selection produces varied changes to allele frequencies over time CITATION Gib10 \l 1033 (Gibbons, 2010). The spontaneous changes in the chemical structure of DNA or mutation may have varied changes to the allele frequencies in human beings. Natural selection refers to the ability of a species, or human beings, for this case, to overcome the competition and survive in their habitats. Survival or enhanced fitness to adapt and survive in one’s preferred habitat is a function of increased frequencies of allele, while decreased fitness for the same exhibits a decrease in their frequencies CITATION Gib10 \l 1033 (Gibbons, 2010). Allele frequencies may randomly change from generation to generation in what is referred to as genetic drift, while genetic flow leads to changes in allele frequencies resulting from migration into a new population and reproducing. The outlined factors have varied influences leading to changes in allele frequencies leading to the overall effect of having the biggest percentage of alleles being shared across different regions with the possibility of the world as a whole sharing a majority of the alleles. If race was a meaningful descriptor of human biological variation, then there would exist unique alleles coupled with other genetic characteristics defining that particular racial group, but that is not the case. Therefore, it suffices to claim that human evolution transcends race as a reliable way to describe human biological variation.
In seconding the inefficiency of race in explaining or describing the human biological variation, it is important to evaluate the evolution of skin color, the dominant human trait for racial classification. Specific alleles such as SLC24A5 and MATP positively impact the development of light skin colors in Europe and Asia, with the evolution of light skin dating back to the era of divergence of East Asians and Eu...