[FreedomCalls]

But an Italian and a North African aren't very different. And the North African isn't very different from an Ethiopian, and they're black. It's not the case that's you're simply in one category or another.

The idea of simple categories comes from the historical accident that early America was settled by immigrants from northern Europe and slaves from equitorial Africa.

The existence of ovals does not mean that that there are no such things as circles or squares.

Given that circles and squares exist, we can take square-ish ovals and place them in the category of square-like objects and we can take round-ish ovals and place them in the category of circle-like objects. Questions of race can be handled similarly.

[A.J.Armitage]

Given that circles and squares exist, we can take square-ish ovals and place them in the category of square-like objects and we can take round-ish ovals and place them in the category of circle-like objects.

If you want to. But circle-like and circle aren't the same thing. Circle-like is a mental category to make things easier, which is say a construct. That it's based on an underlying reality doesn't make it less of a construct.

Questions of race can be handled similarly.

What questions of race do you have in mind?