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As a rough conclusion, distinguishing Caucasian from African-American source can usually be done confidently. Distinguishing Caucasian from Hispanic is more problematic.

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I suppose it is useful for seeing the world in black and white...

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"Everyone helpin' each other whenever they can we makin' it happen, from nothin' to somethin'
That's how we be survivin'" - BEP

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It's supposed to be new and foolproof, but that's traditionally what they say about all new" crime-fighting innovations. "By the time we find out there are serious questions ... a whole bunch of innocent people have had their DNA searched."

Last year, London police sought DNA samples from officers of Afro-Caribbean backgrounds to compare them with evidence from nine unsolved rapes. The suspect's accent and the neighborhood in which he operated suggested to police that he was a black man with Caribbean roots.

Working with DNAPrint Genomics, London police hoped to develop a database of DNA characteristics that are particular to Afro-Caribbeans to confirm their suspicions and to help them find suspects in other cases.

Rhoden, as head of the Black Police Association, urged members not to cooperate. "In our view, this promoted racial stereotyping while adding little to the investigation."

Melton, the private lab president from State College, Pa., says inferring a suspect's appearance by examining only 176 ancestry markers is "more than (labs) ought to be doing."

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"How far are we from having (ancestry tests) used to justify taking DNA from any black man on a street corner, because we think a Sub-Saharan African committed the crime?" asks Ingrid Gill, a Chicago lawyer who has lectured on ancestry testing at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

George Rhoden, a detective with London's Metropolitan Police and president of the force's Black Police Association, also is a skeptic. He says that in a society in which marriages between people of different ethnic backgrounds are increasingly common, racial designations often are "very broad" and "don't do us coppers much good."

Rhoden points out that suspects with similar genetic ancestry can look significantly different from one another. A person whose profile is 75% Sub-Saharan African, for example, may have skin color that is nearly identical to someone whose profile is 35% Sub-Saharan African.

"As a detective, I don't care where (a suspect's) grandfather came from," Rhoden says. "I want to know what he looks like."

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"Everyone helpin' each other whenever they can we makin' it happen, from nothin' to somethin'
That's how we be survivin'" - BEP

I think the answer would be "both."  It is obvious that genetic characteristics are passed on to future generations.  A group of people living in one are will tend to adapt certain features to that specific area of the world based on natural selection.  Over time, these develop into different races.

I don't see how it can be argued that adaptations to your environment don't exist.

Then we label these characteristics.  It's human nature.  Terms meant to classify and give things meaning tend to be favorable to humans.  The issue is, this can get subjective.  A concept or idea attached to a word to give it meaning is sometimes hard to understand.  There are different perceptions on the concept itself and the definitions that are used.

You are tirelessly arguing the existence of a concept from two different perspectives and definitions on what it is.

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You have to answer the question how finely are we going to examine differences? In a sense it is a social construct because we (that is, Europe) has set "race" at a certain level, generally based on physical appearance.

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Massive, epic adventure, multi-coloured, multi-layered.
Sort of two/three dimensional Wizard of Oz for the future.

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From your link

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As a rough conclusion, distinguishing Caucasian from African-American source can usually be done confidently. Distinguishing Caucasian from Hispanic is more problematic.

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I suppose it is useful for seeing the world in black and white...

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They're determining race, not culture.

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"If you worship your enemy, you are defeated.
If you adopt your enemy's religion you are enslaved.
If you breed with your enemy you are destroyed."
-Polydoros

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A Black can be Hispanic, and a White can be Hispanic.

They're determining race, not culture.

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Are you going to address the observation that one can indeed infer race from genetic composition, or are you just going to continue with making retarded off the cuff concepts?

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You can, but the definitions of race are often quite archaic. The obvious, superficial phenotypes are not very scientific ways of classifying races since we have the full genetic makeup of pretty much anyone we want.

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Massive, epic adventure, multi-coloured, multi-layered.
Sort of two/three dimensional Wizard of Oz for the future.

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Social. U can't tell a person's race based on their DNA. Science has proven that.

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Source?

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Quote: from kidd rune at 3:53 pm on Sep. 29, 2008

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A Black can be Hispanic, and a White can be Hispanic.  

 They're determining race, not culture.

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Yep. And since Hispanics can be any race they have trouble. Just shows you.

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That other than for trying to see the world in black and white those scientific tests aren't much help to determine race.

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