"There's Only One Race, the HUMAN Race!": Is This Living in Denial as a Coverup for Racism?

Every now and again I'll happen upon a race themed topic thread in online group forums where someone might say, "There's only one race, the HUMAN race!" I've always disagreed with this statement because I feel it denies the acknowledgement of the beautiful variations within our species that's helped us migrate and adapt across our planet over the course of our evolution.

I suppose this can become a little semantic, but I don't associate the word "Race" with human beings as a whole. Many people seem to find this to be a controversial point, but I feel that human beings are simply one of many mammalian animals that cohabit the Earth. But like some other animals, the taxonomy of human beings has evolved with a variety of races and/or ethnicities that are based on both ancestry and visible traits, especially skin color and facial features.

I believe that our racial and ethnic variations attribute to the beauty of our species and should be embraced as a gift from our creator. But that doesn't seem to be the case in our world. Just as much as we're gifted with an incredible ability to adapt around our planet's various geographical climates and weather conditions, we're also gifted with what's commonly understood as "Free Will".

But what has our species done with its gift of free will? Look at the atrocities that our species has committed. From faith-oriented wars to various human exploitations to genocide, we've taken a beautiful gift and coupled it with fear and we've successfully created so many divides between our peoples that it's taking LAWS to construct bridges between us. Sometimes people reach out across these bridges and sometimes they don't.

I believe that more and more people are becoming tired of these divides and are making genuine and sincere efforts to cross over these bridges or maybe meet some people half way. But sometimes the friction they encounter in the process seems to lead to confusion within their personal identities and sense of self because racism, both internal and external, can be very harsh and complex making it very hard or seemingly impossible to overcome.