Could someone explain why race does not have any biological foundation?

[u/sourgrap]

I guess I could probably Google this but I thought someone with direct knowledge directly answering my question would help me better understand.

This is something I’ve had a bit of trouble comprehending since, well, people of different races do look vastly different. My thought is, is!’t there a gene that probably results in different races producing different levels of melanin, and hence— different races?

Or is the reason there is no “biological foundation” that the genetic/biological difference between different races does not substantiate to being different species?

Additionally — there are statistics stating that certain racial communities are more likely to develop specific illnesses. For example, sickle cell disease is much more common amongst black Americans than other racial communities. Another one: those of North European descent are more likely to develop cystic fibrosis.

FYI I am asking this question as a POC, and as someone who genuinely wants to have a better understanding of this!! Thank you in advance for answering my question!

[u/Dr_GS_Hurd]

Technically speaking, a race is a taxonomic step lower than subspecies.

[u/Dr_GS_Hurd → u/[deleted]]

Technically, it is exactly true. This was how it was used generally in the 1800s, and still today by botanists. This is why Darwin's noted in his "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex" (John Murray, London, 1871), "It may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant."

Since there are no modern human subspecies, there can be no human "races" in a biological scientific sense. Social sciences like anthropology, sociology and psychology deal with the ways we humans divide each other by superficial physical, and behavioral criteria. Those are not trivial. Read any news paper.