To say that race is only a social construct and not biological presupposes a definition of race that I do not think is shared by average people in ordinary circumstances. I think that by using the term “race”, people are mainly referring to appearance and ancestry. Skin color and texture, hair color, eye color, facial characteristics (lips, nose, etc...)... are all determined by biology. It is true enough that there are Indians darker than any African-American and all kinds of other such situations that can cast into doubt the usefulness of dividing up a population by race. But to say that biology is not the driving factor in a person’s appearance, what we commonly understand as “race” and that this biology is not passed down from generation to generation does not make a lot of sense.
All that said, the important thing should be that we all human beings equal before the Almighty. But trying convincing a liberal of that.
“Race” is kind of an amalgamation of several real phenomena and some socially constructed ones.
What is real and intrinsic that distinguishes people from one another in real, legitimate ways that are “race” related are nationality, native language, family, and ancestry/lineage. Family includes biological parentage as well as legal parentage (which may be non-biological). Ancestry is a broad category related to having ancestors from various continents. This is the closest thing to race.
But here is how race is different from these things: Obama is considered a black man or African American.This is primarily due to physical ethnic (i.e. “racial”) characteristics such as dark skin and broad nose and lips that are larger in comparison with most other ethnicities. (There is nothing intended here as an insult.) The reality is that Obama has very little in common with others who are black / African American.
Obama is foreign in most ways from most Americans whether black, white or other ethnicity. He is multi-national, multi-lingual (he speaks Indonesian), multi-ethnic, and was raised in a way most of us cannot relate to.
But as a racial stereotype, he is simply black.
Forensic investigation of a crime scene will not determine the “race” of a victim or perpetrator. Some racially-related information may be gathered, but racial category is not something that can be specifically identified. Sex can, however.
“to say that biology is not the driving factor in a person’s appearance, what we commonly understand as ‘race’ and that this biology is not passed down from generation to generation does not make a lot of sense.”
Like I said, race is a social construct. Biology does determine the features you mention. And we often ascribe these features to racial categories, but race is not tied to any specific set of genetic markers. Any “race” can be dark or light. Any “race” can have straight or curly hair. Any can be tall or short. Any can be fat or skinny. Any can have long noses or short. Etc.
Identifying people by race really serves little to no purpose.
EOE and race preferences do not distinguish whether someone has ancestors who owned slaves, fought to free slaves, etc. Obama probably has no ancestors who were American slaves. He probably does have ancestors who sold black slaves to Americans. Yet racial biases and quotas do not take into account these factors. So someone like Obama could get an advantage in college entrance or job placement or government contract awards even though his ancestors may have done nothing but cause race-based enslavement of blacks, while a white person whose fore parents never owned slaves and lost lives and property fighting to free slaves might be disadvantaged by the “racial” quotas.
“presupposes a definition of race that I do not think is shared by average people”
“Race” defies definition. There is one human race. There are languages, nationalities, families and lineages. But how much in common do two people need to have in order to be in the same “race”? How little can they have in common? How many “races” are there? When addressing these issues it becomes apparent that “race” is a social construct.