Your examples are good to show that both views are correct and not mutually exclusive. It’s just an example of people talking past each other.
Sickle cell anemia is in African and semitics, as you say, but also Asians.
But not all of any of these groups.
It is a function of geography and exposure to malarial carrying Mosquitos.
There is no clear biological basis for race as we define it now, but there are shared traits based on geographical origin.
A distinction without a difference. The basis of the article is that geneticists can look at your DNA and easily classify you into one of the five main races, and with more markers can further classify you into your ethnicity. So YES, there is a clear biologic basis for race: your DNA. It doesn't get any clearer than that, does it?