If in ethnology, there is no concept of race (it is a social construction), why is it used in politics?

Question

If there is biologically no difference in people based on the social construction of race, why are community programs based on a concept of race, including in the educational fields, cultural policy, work policy, the media?

Answer 1

If some one told you there are no races, they are wrong.  Races arose as a result of isolation.  The tracking of mothers DNA from a single source has shown how the human body adjusts to the cilmates it is exposed to.  The Pygmy is a perfect example.   They are perfect Homo Sapeians, with perfectly proportioned bodies, that vary from their neighbors only in their stature.  Which since they live in the rain forest of central Africa, one of the hottest places on earth, makes since.  If it is more efficent for large animals to live in cold climates, shouldn't we expect to find smaller in the hot?  

Now tribalism (a social construct) and other forces have caused extremes in races, like the Dinka in Africa (very tall) or the strikingly similar physical appearance of all members of a group.  In those cowboy movies those old-timers couldn't say that one group of Indians in loin cloths at best riding by on horses they had stole from their neighbors were of one tribe because of a sign.  It was because if you looked at a Crow he looked like a Crow.  If you looked at a Blackfoot, he looked like a Blackfoot.  Just like in Julius Ceasar's time, if you were in France you could tell what tribe a person came from, even though they were of the same race.

YES!  THERE ARE DIFFERENT RACES BUT ALL ARE PEOPLE AND THEREFORE EQUAL.  AS WE HAVE SEEN IN AMERICA ANY RACIAL DIFERENCES THAT EXIST ARE THE RESULT OF HOW THE CULTURE TREATS THE RACE.  THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE RACE DOES NOT EXIST.  IN THE FUTURE, ONE OF THE MAIN JOBS ANTHROPOLOGIST MAY HAVE IS TO MAKE FIRST CONTACT WITH ALIEN SPECIES AND WE NEED TO START LEARNING HOW WE ARE GOING TO DO THAT BY LEARNING HOW TO DEAL WITH OURSELVES.

Answer 2

politics is all about social constructs. Whatever is relevant to a society will be used in politics.  If society stoped caring about race, so would politics.

Answer 3

It's a scary thing, but people have that sense of "other" .  That their group is somehow better and should be in charge. I hope I see a day when the world is really colour blind

Answer 4

In biology there are differences among "races". The reason behind us seeing less differences among people coming from different races (or as they seem) is due to most of us not coming from only one race. Most of the people are mixed race people. Take it back a few hundred to thousand years and everyone had ancestors from different parts of the world.