the.com/race

means A system for sorting people into groups based on physical traits, treated as if it reveals deep biological truth when it mostly reflects history, power, and culture dressed up as science.

from The word likely traces back through French 'race' and Italian 'razza' to a murky root — possibly related to Latin 'radix' (root) or 'generatio' (lineage/breed), though scholars still argue over the exact path. It entered English in the 1500s meaning something like 'lineage' or 'breed,' used for horses, families, and nations alike. Only later, especially from the 1700s onward, did it harden into a pseudo-scientific category for sorting humans by skin and skull, a usage that modern genetics has since shown has no solid biological foundation — the 'root' turned out to be far shallower than the word's own roots.