Amerikaner sind da unbefangener im Umgang damit - aus welchen Gründen auch immer (ihre Geschichte im Umgang mit Rassenfragen ist ja so unbelastet nun auch nicht). Man findet zuhauf Statistiken, die anscheinend völlig neutral und wertfrei die Bewohner von Städten etc. nach ihren Rassen sortieren.
Since the thread has been exhumed: The usage of "race" has changed over time in English, apparently more so than in German, and does now reflect the understanding that there is no genetic basis for the term. It's basically a sociological distinction, as discussed in M-W
Usage of Race
Noun (1)
Sense 1a of this entry describes the word race as it is most frequently used: to refer to the various groups that humans are often divided into based on physical traits, these traits being regarded as common among people of a shared ancestry. This use of race dates to the late 18th century, and was for many years applied in scientific fields such as physical anthropology, with race differentiation being based on such qualities as skin color, hair form, head shape, and particular sets of cranial dimensions. Advances in the field of genetics in the late 20th century determined no biological basis for races in this sense of the word, as all humans alive today share 99.99% of their genetic material. For this reason, the concept of distinct human races today has little scientific standing, and is instead understood as primarily a sociological designation, identifying a group sharing some outward physical characteristics and some commonalities of culture and history. (Emphasis mine.)
Here, more of the dictionary's treatment of the term, showing how its usage has changed over the years:
"Definition of race
(Entry 1 of 3)
1a see usage paragraph below: any one of the groups that humans are often divided into based on physical traits regarded as common among people of shared ancestry
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer … to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual … because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin … — Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, United States Code
… family trees made more complicated by the intersection of different races …— Michael A. Chaney
First, the [2020 US Census] question [about race] is based on how you identify. Second, the race categories generally reflect social definitions in the U.S. and are not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. We recognize that the race categories include racial and national origins and sociocultural groups. — United States Census Bureau
To the extent that economic opportunity is expanded, race relations are improved.— Tom McClintock also : the fact of dividing people, or of people being divided, into such groups : categorization by race
The Army will remove photographs of candidates in promotion board hearings … as part of an effort to address why so many black officers are being passed over in favor of their white counterparts … . The removal of photos by the military's largest service is a tacit acknowledgment of how much race still plays a part in decisions about who should advance. — Helene Cooper
The U.S. is going through a social and political upheaval, offering an opportunity to undertake a necessary, hard look at the role of race in defining what kind of a nation the U.S. is now and has been historically. — William C. Danvers
Even when a new show promises to break new ground … we are forced to swallow more of the same—a general erasure or ignorance of race. — Roxane Gay
b dated : a group of people sharing a common cultural, geographical, linguistic, or religious origin or background
The Yorkshire type had always been the strongest of the British strains; the Norwegian and the Dane were a different race from the Saxon.— Henry Adams
… this girl, Dolores by name, and a Catalonian by race …— Charlotte Brontë
c archaic : the descendants of a common ancestor : a group sharing a common lineage
… by descent I am the head not only of my own race, which ends with me, but of the Haughton family, of which, though your line assumed the name, it was but a younger branch.— Edward Bulwer-Lytton
This forest was adjacent to the chief haunts of the MacGregors, or a particular race of them, known by the title of MacEagh …— Sir Walter Scott
2a : a group of living things considered as a category
… the whole race of mankind … stumbling and blundering along the path of life …— Anne Brontë
… Nan denounced the entire race of boys as "plaguey things."— Louisa May Alcott
… countless asters, … tansies, golden-rods, and the whole race of yellow flowers …— Henry David Thoreau
… full many a man loves his dog better than the rest of mankind, and so the devotion of the race of dogs finds return and recompense.— Wardon Allan Curtis
Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt star in a sci-fi thriller set in the near future, when an alien race has attacked Earth.— Barbara Vancheri
When the last century ended, humans could not even fly. In the 20th century, the human race went to the moon and began to explore the stars. — sfgate.com
b archaic : breed
Under these conditions, a race of highly … delicate, and gentle cattle had been developed.— Henry E. Alvord
c obsolete : the act of breeding or producing offspring
Male he created thee, but thy consort female for race …— John Milton
It behooveth therefore that the Mares appointed for race, be well compacted, of a decent quality, … in age not under three nor above ten years old.— Edward Topsell
3 biology : a group within a species that is distinguishable (as morphologically, genetically, or behaviorally) from others of the same species
This quail species is diverse and can be classified into 21 recognized geographic races in North America …— Eric T. Thacker and Tim L. Springer
also : a usually informal taxonomic category representing such a group that is often considered equivalent to a subspecies
4 archaic : a group of people sharing some habit or characteristic (such as profession or belief)
… the whole race of politicians put together.— Jonathan Swift
The Apostles, though they were fishers too, were of the solemn race of sea-fishers …— Henry David Thoreau
… the race of domestic clowns or jesters, maintained in the houses of the wealthy …— Sir Walter Scott … to become a Dissenter seemed to him identical with choosing God instead of mammon. That race of Dissenters is extinct in these days, when opinion has got far ahead of feeling …— George Eliot
… our daughters haunt the town as if searching for something they missed, walking up beside the rocks with books in their arms like a race of little nuns.— John Updike
5 obsolete : temperament, disposition And now I give my sensual race the rein …— William Shakespeare"
