[Smartaleck]

"For treatment of illness, for one very important thing."

Can be. But it's not the race per se that is the determinate, as much as the bloodline. Hemophilia for example, prevalent to whites and only certain ones, could be passed to other races but the race isn't as important as the family tree. As you correctly stated it becomes even less useful as the "races" mix thus making the use of race even more irrelevant. While the use of race might have some use as a medical tool, it quite damaging when used for social purposes. For example, why the he** should Michael Jordan's kids get a priority acceptance to college over a brighter white kid from a poor family solely due to race?

[cyborg]

The thing with racial preferences is a very sociological concept of race, plus your example introduces poor vs. rich classism. That's why I am very skeptical when it comes to science investigating race. The history of science and racial biology isn't that great.