Race is a category used by individuals to describe their ancestry and/or physical appearance, such as skin color and facial features. People can belong to more than one racial group, and many people identify as having mixed ancestry. The Census Bureau collects racial data in accordance with guidelines provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and the categories are based on self-identification.
The historical concept of race has faced substantial intellectual challenge. Some scholars have rejected the logical coherence of the concept, while others defend it, although with substantial changes to the foundations of racial identity. In some cases, these reworkings depict races as socially constructed rather than, as the historical concept would have it, discrete and essentialist.
Modern racial thinking emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe as part of the Enlightenment movement, which promoted secular reasoning and rationality and promoted the notion that natural laws governed the world, including human beings. This new way of thinking led to a belief that there were distinct and discrete biological races, which could be identified by certain visible characteristics or traits.
Various scientific developments since the 18th century have challenged these ideas. Specifically, researchers have argued that there are no distinct and discrete, biologically grounded phenotypes or groups of physical traits that can be clustered into distinct racial groups. The idea of a universal and objective physical trait – such as hair thickness or skin color – that can serve to distinguish people of different racial groups has been refuted by the fact that these traits are highly variable among individuals, and they can vary significantly over time.
A number of other scientific and philosophical developments have contributed to this intellectual challenge. For example, modern genetics has shown that the differences in physical traits that scientists have traditionally used to construct a biological definition of race are actually caused by many different genes. These genes cause physical changes to the body that result in perceptible variations in a person’s face and other bodily traits. This evidence has led to a strong anthropological rejection of the biological conception of race, and many scholars now consider it a social construct.
The racial distinctions that were once believed to be a result of biological differences between “populations” became the basis for myriad other social distinctions and hierarchies in American society. For instance, this racial concept served as the justification for European colonization and enslavement of people in Africa. It also played a role in promoting a false notion that whites were inherently smarter and more capable than other people.
Today, most Americans believe that hard work, family finances, and other personal factors are more important in a person’s success than their race or ethnicity. However, about six-in-ten blacks with some college education say that their race or ethnicity has hurt their ability to get ahead in life. This is a major difference from the views of whites with some or more education, when about half say that their race or ethnicity has not held them back.