Re: Anthropology break
Numerous surveys of genetic variation among populations around the world indeed show that about 85 percent of the total genetic variation occurs between individuals within a given population, far more than the 15 percent or so in members of different populations.

This is what I was refering to, serves me right for linking to something I skimmed. Other biologists have made that claim and there is convincing evidence to indicate that there is a significantly larger amount of genetic diversity within what we think of a "racial" catagories then would be expected if race was indeed genetically determined. The penguin thing is, to the best of my knowledge, true.

The point still stands insofar as race is not related to genetic markers but are merely, as frequentmouse points out, stochastic statistical clustering that we assign significance to. Even racial catagories are highly mutible, and what we define as different races today are a relatively recent conception of race.

Granted, I am not a geneticist, but this is the offical standing on race in anthropology. I highly recommend the American Anthropological Association's Statement On "Race" which has a clear explaination of their reasoning, as well as a nice concise history of the developement of modern racial catagories.

Additionally, since modern racial catagories are based on phenotype (i.e. hair color and texture, skin color, skeletal morphology), individuals who ascribe to the idea that race is biologically real are essentially claiming that phenotype and genotype are actually the same.