“Race” is actually nothing but a species of pseudoscience—an attempt to create a classification system for human beings based upon the most readily-observed differences. In its simplicity,it is akin to the old system of classifying things according to the “four elements,” earth, air, fire and water, or medicating the body according to the theory of “humours.” Or, for that matter, trying to read personality by feeling head bumps (phrenology), or to predict personality and the future by reading palms (palmistry).

“Race” as a classification system is the equivalent of these; to say that a pygmy and a Masai are “the same race” merely because they have some resemblance in skin tone and hair configuration is absurd. Equally absurd is the number of “races”—actually, nationalities—which cluttered up the recent US census form. As people may remember, Laotians and Guamanians were considered separated “races,” and there were about fifteen different “races” ascribed to Hispanics and those of Caribbean ancestry, while one “race”—”white”—was supposed to encompass the entire panorama of human variety which could trace its ancestry from anywhere between Portugal and the Russian steppes.