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What is Race?
This article was posted on Wednesday, September 17, 2008
WHAT IS A RACE?
There is really only one race—— the human race. The Bible teaches us that GOD has “made of one blood all nations of men” (Acts 17:26). Scriptures distinguishes people by tribal or national groupings, not by skin color or physical features (e.g., skin color) in common, which distinguish them from other groups. We prefer to call these “people groups” rather than “races” to avoid the evolutionary connotations associated with the word “race.”
All peoples can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. This shows that the biological differences between the “races” are not very great. In fact, the DNA differences are trivial The DNA of any two people in the world would typically differ by just 0.2 percent. Of this, only 6 percent can be linked to racial categories; the rest is “within race” variation.
“ THIS GENETIC UNITY MEANS, FOR INSTANCE, THAT WHITE AMERICANS, ALTHOUGH OSTENSIBLY FAR REMOVED FROM BLACK AMERICAN IN PHENOTYPE, CAN SOMETIMES BE BETTER TISSUE MATCHES FOR THEM THAN ARE OTHER BLACK AMERICANS.”
Anthropologists generally classify people into a small number of main racial groups, such as the caucasoid (European or white), the Mongoloid (which includes the Chinese, Inuit or Eskimo, and Native Americans), the Negroid (black Africans), and the Australoid (the Australian Aborigines). Within each classification, there may be many different sub-groups. However, people inhabiting the Indian subcontinent are mainly Caucasian and their skin color ranges from light brown to quite dark. Even within Europe, skin color ranges from very pale to brown.
Virtually all evolutionists would now say that the various people groups did not have separate origins. That is, different people groups did not each evolve from different groups of animals. So they would agree with the Biblical creationist that all people groups have come from the same original population. Of course, they believe that there are such vast differences to develop.
One reason for this is that many people believe that the observable differences arise from some people having unique features in their hereditary make-up which others lack. This is an understandable but incorrect idea. Let’s look at the skin color for instance. This is easy to think that since that different groups of people have “yellow“skin, “red” skin, “black” skin, “White” skin, and “brown” skin, there must be many different skin pigments or colorings. And since different Chemicals for coloring would mean a different genetic recipe or code in the hereditary blueprint in each people group, it appears to be a real problem. How could all those differences develop within a short time?
However, we all have same coloring pigment in our skin, melanin. This is a dark-brownish pigment that is produced in different amounts in special cell in our skin. If we had none (as do people called albinos, who inherit a mutation-caused defect, and cannot produced melanin), then we would have a very white or pink skin coloring. If we produce a little melanin, we would be European white. If our skin produced a great deal of melanin, we would be very dark black. And in between, of course, are all shades of brown. There are no other significant skin pigments.
Other substances can in minor ways affect skin shading, such as colored fibers of the protein elastin and the pigment carotene. However, once again we all share these same compounds, and the principle governing their inheritance are similar to those outlined in the coming information. Factors other than pigment in the skin may influence the shade perceived by the observer in subtle ways, such as the thickness of the overlying (clear) skin layers, the density and positioning of the blood capillary network, etc. In fact , “melanin” which is produced by cells in the body called melanocytes consists of two pigments, which also account for hair color. Eumelanin is very dark brown, phaeomelanin is more reddish. People tan when sunlight stimulates eumelanin production. Redheads, who are often unable to develop a protective tan, have a high proportion of Phaeomelanin. They probably inherited a defective gene which makes their pigment cells “unable to respond to normal signals that stimulate eumelanin production.”
In summary, from currently available information, the really important factor in determining skin color is melanin ——- the amount produced.
HEREDITY coming up.
Next posting: HEREDITY
Previous posting: How Did all Different Races Arise?
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