[quote]The problem with race and ethnicity is that they're vague synonyms of categories defined solely by people, specifically people that can change views about which categories actually exist. If an oligodactyl pygmy with albinism and methemoglobinemia is born, they could be categorized as the first smurf to ever exist, and we'd have yet another bit of data to waste resources on when we have a census or similar process.

Meanwhile, the traits of atoms have pretty much been the same for over a dozen billion years, regardless of what humans thought about them.[/quote]
So? Taxonomy is a fluid concept as constant changes appear, just as we add to our knowledge in other fields. This is again a bit of a "gee ya fucking  think" moment.