So a new paper by The American Journal of Human Genetics, entitled Subcontinental genetic variation in the All of Us Research Program: Implications for biomedical research. The results of this study indicate that the genetic variation within race and ethnicity groups is not neatly divided into distinct, separate clusters. Instead, it exists along a continuum or gradient. The paper also said something very important: "race and ethnicity may serve as proxies for capturing sociocultural or environmental factors that are not typically accounted for by standard covariates in association models." This means that race and racial origin really do provide a way to study human populations. So what's the deal? If people are not separated by genetic clusters but more by a gradient, why use race as proxies to determine the genetics of a person?