The term race has been applied to linguistic groups (the “Arab race”), religious groups (“the Jewish race”), and political, national or ethnic groups with few or no physical characteristics that distinguish them from their neighbours (“the Irish race”). It has also been used to describe the differences between different human populations and to explain those differences. Some scientists believed that races were distinct biological units that would eventually evolve into separate species (the “discrete human races theory”).
While anthropologists and other evolutionary scientists have long shifted away from the language of race to the term population in their discussions about genetic differences, many social scientists and historians continued to apply the concept of race to their analyses of history and society. Many of these uses of the term were valid, but others were problematic and even dangerous. For example, the way in which race is used to describe people who have mixed ancestry can lead to stereotypes and negative assumptions about those people’s heritage.
In the United States, for instance, the census questionnaire includes the option for a person to identify themselves as one or more racial categories. The categories on the form reflect a social definition of race that is recognized in our country and do not attempt to define people in a scientific or anthropological manner.
For example, the racial categories in our census are White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino (or Spanish) and Asian. Those categories are not intended to be biologically or anthropologically defined, although superficial differences between groups do exist and can be readily recognized. The census forms are not meant to be a scientific definition of race, but they do serve as a useful tool in collecting demographic information about our population.
Most anthropologists, geneticists and other population geneticists agree that the distinctions that have been made between different human groups are primarily cultural in nature. These differences include a wide range of behaviors and attitudes that are influenced by culture, environment and history. Many of these differences are correlated with skin color, but they do not necessarily imply that humans evolved separately into distinct “races.”
There has been much debate about whether or not the existence of racial groups is real or if it is simply a social construct. But there is no doubt that, for the most part, communities of color in the United States and across the globe experience poorer outcomes than other groups based on socioeconomic status and structural racism. For example, infant mortality rates for babies born to African American mothers are double those of white babies. This is not due to genes, but rather because of the enduring effects of centuries of discrimination. Structural racism creates disparities in access to health care, education and healthy food. It causes families of color to live in overcrowded housing and crowded schools, and it leads to systemic biases that result in a variety of harmful consequences.