Race is a classification of modern humans, usually (and historically) based on some combination of physical traits. It also represents a particular ancestry, historical affiliation or a shared culture. Its use is so widespread that most people probably take its meaning for granted. But the concept is far from simple. In fact, many different scholars have come to hold various positions about the nature and definition of race, with some believing that it is socially constructed but still valid, and others arguing that it has no basis in biology or genetics.
The word “race” itself dates back to the 1600s, when Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus first used it to sort people into racial groups. By the 1700s, European colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade had turned it into a tool for organizing human society, with white people using it to justify their superiority over people who did not look like them. As anthropologists and other scientists began to collect more data, a consensus developed that the differences that Linnaeus and his successors thought they had observed were mostly cultural, with what little was not cultural being principally polymorphic (found in diverse groups of people at different frequencies) or clinal (gradually variable over geography). By the 1970s, it had become clear that discrete biological races did not exist.
Today, nearly all population geneticists agree that dividing people into separate “race groups” is not possible on the basis of genetic variation alone. Genetic differences are too small and too variable to be reliably separated into distinct categories. In addition, research suggests that a person’s race is not determined solely by their genes, but by a combination of factors such as the environment in which they were born and raised, their lifestyle choices and other environmental influences.
As a result, anthropologists and other evolutionary scientists have largely moved away from the language of race in favor of the term population to discuss genetic differences. But they continue to explore the implications of race as a social construction, with theoretical frameworks such as racial formation theory and critical race theory investigating how the images, ideas and assumptions about the meaning of race affect everyday life.
Moreover, it is still very important for social science to be aware of the ways in which racial distinctions are used as tools to achieve economic and political goals. As we study how these racial categories are created and perpetuated, they can help us understand the dynamics of inequality in health, wealth and opportunity.
When it comes to the American dream, it is clear that being a member of one of the so-called major races has real advantages. About 45% of whites say their racial background has helped them get ahead in life, and about the same percentage of Hispanics and Asians report that being part of those racial groups has helped them. But the racial gap is widening, and it is important for the academy to keep working on how to shrink that divide.