homework #5

Goodman sets out to argue Leroi's claim that race can be a way to describe biological variation. Goodman want to keep the concepts of race and biology completely seperate. He states that due to European's ideology about race it was believed that this was a way to classify humans. Because Europeans had this idea and they were the leading power, this concept of human diversity by race became a standard belief and was tought to others. There is scientific proof showing race is only skin deep and that characteristics of humans don't just pertain to one race, this is the way Goodman looks at race while Leroi might disagree saying race is still a valuable way to classify humans. The article goes on to talk about he factors that lead to the greatest genetic variation, and we that it mainly has to do with location. This is important but where people are from still does not explain the development of certain traits but instead it is the events that people experience. People experience similar things when they are located together which is why certain traits pertain to different regions and not different races. In summary Goodman states that his point in contrast to Leroi's is that "race is real as lived experience".