In several disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, and genetics, the idea of human races has been hotly discussed. In the past, people divided the human population into many groups according to physical traits such skin tone, facial features, and hair texture. These divisions gave rise to the concept of many "races."

The idea of human races, however, is increasingly seen as a social construct rather than a factual reality from a genetic and biological perspective. According to genetic studies, there is greater genetic diversity inside communities than between them, and there is comparatively little genetic variation among human populations. In other words, people of different racial groupings may share more genetic traits than certain people of their own racial group.