Yes, There is Such a Thing as Race By
John Alexander
This paper will start by making an assertion that many politically correct academics would
consider frustrating, alarming and infuriating: Race exists as a biological concept. Despite the
unpopularity of the idea that race exists, slightly over half of all biological/physical anthropologists
today believe in the view that human races are biologically valid and real.1
Although the simple statement race exists as a biological concept might make many
feel uncomfortable and want to bury their heads in the sand, this paper will attempt to prove that
the statement is true. Before doing so, however, it should be noted that this paper focuses only
on the question of whether there is such a thing as race. It will not discuss concepts of racial
inferiority or superiority and nor will it even attempt to examine the scientific utility of classifying
humans by race. The focus of this paper, as stated upfront, is entirely limited to whether race
exists as a biological concept.
Definition of Race
First, there are easily-perceived traits such as hair and eye color, body build, and facial
traits which vary among human population groups; these differences are easily perceived by the
layman; and these traits are determined at least partially (and perhaps wholly) by ancestry
(genetics).2 Race then is simply the label given to that human population grouping. In other
words, as population geneticist Steve Sailer has put it, race is a lineage; it is a very extended
family that inbreeds to some extent.3 Under this definition, race and ancestry are synonyms.
Other synonyms for race are cluster, population, statistical collections of alleles, cline, clinal
grouping, lineage, and regional pattern. The aforementioned are all terms that many population
geneticists use instead of race;4 however, these terms all mean the exact same thing as race.
Note that race does not mean the same thing as species, if the word species is defined
as a biologically distinct breeding unit.5 Because it is possible for members of different racial
groups to breed with one another, the races are not separate species. Also, it is not possible to
take any given human and unambiguously classify him or her as belonging to one particular race
(as would be required with species classification). Race in the biological sense therefore is more
a statistical concept. It is, to put it plainly, simply a major division of the human species grouped
by ancestry.
Racial Traits
A race is distinguished by a particular combination of inherited features. Anthropologists