Physical Race Differences Are Unimportant
All races are. approximately alike in every important physical characteristic. With a Yew exceptions (such as that a dark skin is useful under tropical sun), the differences are cosmetic not functional. The physical differences within the human species are very modest compared with the differences within’ many species-dogs or horses, for example. Most scientists today are agreed that all races are of one species, the product of a single evolution, and that all races are about equally “close” to the other animals. For example, the blacks more closely resemble the apes in hair color, nose form, and facial slant; but the whites more closely resemble the apes in lip form, hair texture, and amount of body hair. There is -some evidence that allergy to different foods and susceptibility to some diseases may vary along ethnic lines. This would include the susceptibility of Jews to Haystacks disease, the greater likelihood of lactose intolerance and sickle-cell anemia among blacks, and the greater probability of Tallahassee, a form .of anemia, among people whose ancestors came from the Mediterranean area [Zochert, 1977]. Public health workers should realize the differences in’ the susceptibility of ethnic groups to these specific diseases, but most diseases vary little between ethnic groups when other factors are held constant. It is primarily culture rather than heredity which produces differences between ethnic groups
