"Makoto Taniguchi"  wrote in message
> I was wondering, I heard that since human beings are 99.9% the same
> the idea of races within humans is wrong. I heard that if human beings
> were to have different races our DNAs have to be much more different.
> Is there any truth to this?
>
Compared to chimpanzees, humans show very little genetic variation. This
probably means that we went through a population bottleneck sometime not too
long ago in evolutionary terms.
No gene has been found which occurs in one race exclusively. There is also
quite a bit of interbreeding. This means that there is currently no genetic
definition of "an Arab" or "a Polynesian".
However it is perfectly obvious that humans originating from different parts
of the world have genetic features in common - no Africans have straight
blonde hair, no Scandanavians have dark skin etc.
In the United States, the issue of race is so politicised that it is very
difficult to find impartial scientific discussion. It looks like you have
heard something from left-wing groups to the effect that race is purely a
social construction. This is wrong. On the other hand you don't want to
believe everything you read from the right about Negroes having lower IQ
scores, or being r-selected whilst whites are K-selected either.
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