The Irish used to be a "race" unto themselves. Jewish people still are according to many people (I wonder if an Ethiopian Jew is of the Black race or the Jewish race?). Ukrainians were called their own race in my part of the world, Western Canada, during an immigration wave 100 years ago.

I suppose it's possible that all those old guys had it wrong and used "race" improperly, but we're doing it right now because we use skin tone as a proxy for race instead of other factors.