In article <f17m9.5696$Fl4.506637 at news20.bellglobal.com>,
Parse Tree <parsetree at hotmail.com> wrote:
>That's false. Race is entirely biological. Ethnicity is social, and the
>meanings of the two have been blurred together due to ignorance.
I would direct your attention to a book entitled _White By Law_, which
you will find listed at the book retailer's web site of your choice. It
tracks the development of race as a legal principle in American law --
a crucial point because for quite some time only "White" people could
immigrate. Particularly amusing was how Syrians went back and forth
between being non-white and white over the course of 30 years.
Race is not biological, despite all the pseudoscience that has come up
around it. It's purely a social and legal definition, which is why
there exist fair-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed women whose
passports listed them as "Black" or "Octaroon."