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substantially shape my professional career, eventually culminating in my study of Spanish and Portuguese, a PhD minor in Latin American studies, and decades of research in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. Although others viewed him as inferior because his skin was darker and his social and political background different, I count him as an influential teacher and friend. Though I cannot recall his name and do not know where he lives now, I will always remember him. I hope he remembers me.
    This book is also an outgrowth of what I have discovered as a geneticistfrom laboratory research on human genetic variation I have conducted with collaborators and from my study of published research from laboratories around the world. Unfortunately, few people are aware of how much is known about the genetic basis of race—or, more accurately, the lack thereof. To many, the notion that race is inherited seems self-evident. Yet extensive genetic research has demonstrated that the genetic variation associated with what most people perceive as race represents a small proportion of overall genetic variation. When viewed on a global scale, there are no discrete genetic boundaries separating so-called races. Rather, the world's human diversity consists of innumerable genetic variations spread throughout the human population in a complex set of multiple overlapping arrays. A proportion is associated with geographic ancestry, but much genetic variation traces its origin to more than one hundred thousand years ago when all humans lived in Africa, and that ancient African variation is now spread throughout the people of the world.
    Racial classification is real, but it is based much more on a set of social definitions than on genetic distinctions. Legally defined categories for race differ from one country to another, and they change over time depending largely on the social and political realities of a particular society or nation. The notion of discrete racial categories arose mostly as an artifact of centuries-long immigration history coupled with overriding worldviews that white superiority was inherent—a purported genetic destiny that has no basis in modern science.
    Scientific methods that allow for large-scale analysis of human DNA have recently unleashed a flood of genetic information, allowing for detailed analysis of the geographic ancestry of any particular person. Such methods fail to reveal discrete genetic boundaries along traditional racial classification lines. What they do reveal are complex and fascinating ancestral backgrounds that mirror known historical immigration, both ancient and modern. Complex ancestry, rather than simplistic race, is a more accurate and meaningful representation of each person's genetic constitution. This book argues for a scientific approach to unraveling the complexity of human genetic diversity, and against simplistic classification using race as a supposed biological entity. Racial classification must remain social, targeted to meet social realities, to overcome discrimination and provide strong incentives against it in the present and future.
    A better understanding of what science tells us about human genetic diversity is of immense importance, particularly because it dispels false notions of what race is. This book summarizes what is known about the genetic basis of human diversity, how it evolved, and what it means. It recounts recent research and how human genetic variation is related to pigmentation, human health, and intelligence, all of which have been attributed to race in the past, often simplistically and erroneously. In the end, we can now read our evolutionary history written in our DNA, and it explains our genetic unity as a species and how our genetic diversity came to be.

Allison, A. C. “Protection Afforded by Sickle-Cell Trait against Subtertian Malarial Infection.” British Medical Journal 1, no. 4857 (1954): 290–94.
    American Kennel Club.