What is Race?

A bit of a while ago, I came to the realization that Race was an arbitrary category of humans that really doesn't make any sense.

If you don't understand what I mean, let me clarify. Supposedly, there are three (3) races of humans: Negroid, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid. Now here is where we immediately hit a problem! What are Native Americans (or American Indians)? Are they negroid?

Dictionary.com defines Negroid as being "Of or being a major human racial classification traditionally distinguished by physical characteristics such as brown to black pigmentation and often tightly curled hair and including peoples indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa."

It continues to define Caucasoid as being "Of or relating to the Caucasian racial classification." Notice too that Dictionary.com does not feel compelled to explain what "the Caucasian racial classification" actually is.

And lastly, it defines Mongoloid as being "Of or being a major human racial classification traditionally distinguished by physical characteristics such as yellowish-brown skin pigmentation, straight black hair, dark eyes with pronounced epicanthic folds, and prominent cheekbones and including peoples indigenous to central and eastern Asia."

One definition added American Indians to the Mongoloid race while another did not. And what about the people in western Asia?

My favorite group that seems to defy explanation is Asian Indians! The folks from the southern part of the Subcontinent are sometimes darker than those classified as Negroid. And the people from the north can look Caucasoid. So, where does that put them?

And then we have Black Americans. This is a group of people who were taken from different parts of Africa and enslaved here in the United States and elsewhere. Are they African? I would go so far as to claim that they aren't sure where they are from. Not one of them can point to their ancestors and say "I am Ibo. Or I am X!hosa." They are Black Americans. Have they become a new people because of the change? What about someone who grows up in one place but is in fact from another? What are they? Curious. I wish I understood the world better.