The Human Race Is the Only Race That Matters

Re “The Birth of a ‘Latino Race,’” Commentary, Dec. 29: Professor Ian Haney Lopez’s commentary reveals the actual dilemma of the concept of race. Many Americans are simply confused when using the labels as demonstrated by the use of “Latino.”

What actually constitutes race? A description of a thin layer of skin color? Or a grouping of culture as perceived from Industrial Age sociology? One thing is sure, it is an artifice on the level of phrenology.

The term “race” has lost most, if not all, of its scientific meaning. Although black and white communicates clear distinctions, aren’t they political terms? We would all be better off if there were less focus on the color of one’s epidermis and instead we pushed the only accurate term: the human race. After all, we do deconstruct to just one lineage. The rest is merely historically artificial distinctions or distinct cultural differences.

Leland P. Hammerschmitt

Ojai