Changes

Various different classifications have been proposed for human races in the past.  [[Evolution]]ary textbooks used to have a chapter on [[eugenics]] that discussed various "races", such as Negroid (mostly [[African]]s), Mongoloid (mostly [[Asia]]n) and Caucasian (mostly [[Europe]]ans) and which of the races were the furthest along in evolution.<ref>For example, Hunter, George William, ''[[A Civic Biology]]'' (1914), [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/hunt196.htm p.196]: "At the present time, there exists upon the Earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure.  These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the [[island]]s of the [[Pacific]]; the [[American Indian]]; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of [[China]], [[Japan]], and the [[Eskimos]], and finally the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America."</ref>

Various different classifications have been proposed for human races in the past.  [[Evolution]]ary textbooks used to have a chapter on [[eugenics]] that discussed various "races", such as Negroid (mostly [[African]]s), Mongoloid (mostly [[Asia]]n) and Caucasian (mostly [[Europe]]ans) and which of the races were the furthest along in evolution.<ref>For example, Hunter, George William, ''[[A Civic Biology]]'' (1914), [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/hunt196.htm p.196]: "At the present time, there exists upon the Earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure.  These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the [[island]]s of the [[Pacific]]; the [[American Indian]]; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of [[China]], [[Japan]], and the [[Eskimos]], and finally the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America."</ref>

The concept of race is no longer considered scientifically valid, as there is little genetic difference between the so-called races, and those differences are mostly superficial. Distinguishing humans on the basis of minor differences or not on the original basis of the theory, humans are either one race or several thousand. The most obvious example of difference between races is the fact that while black and pacific-islander people are, obviously, black, all people have the same type of skin-coloring pigment ([[melanin]]), each race's skin color being dependent on the melanin content of the skin.

The concept of race is no longer considered scientifically valid, as there is little genetic difference between the so-called races, and those differences are mostly superficial. However, there are various animal species or subspecies with genetic distances between each other that are lower than that between human populations. For example, Coyotes and Wolves have an Fst Distance of 0.057, compared to 0.11 between Europeans and East Asians, 0.19 between East Asians and Subsaharan Africans, and 0.15 between Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans <ref>https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/592206</ref>. However, race in humans does not cluster so much as it forms gradients, or clines, for example a gradient in East Asian ancestry that stretches from Eastern Europe to Mongolia, or an increase in sub-saharan African ancestry that increases from North Africa to Central Africa. Where the line is placed for defining race, or ethnicity, can therefore be arbitrary.  

Despite its questionable validity, race is still detailed in government census and other forms, mostly for convenience in classifying individuals into groups.

Despite its questionable validity, race is still detailed in government census and other forms, mostly for convenience in classifying individuals into groups.