Is the idea of race a useful categorization of human biological variation?
Is race a useful categorization to track lived experiences, sociopolitical injustices and racism? Agreeing upon the answers to these questions, or at least being clear about which questions we are dealing, is a start toward critically evaluating race, racism and human biological variation. Do humans vary biologically? Yes. Is this debatable? No. I do not think any reasonable person would debate this point. Then, why include it? Because some scientists and many others assume that a denial of a biological concept of race is the same as denying facts about human biological variation. For example, in last years Race: The Reality of Human Differences, Sarich and Miele suggest that race-as-biology is obvious because anyone can distinguish a bunch of Swedes from a bunch of Nigerians. However, this does not prove race is a concept fixed in biology; it only demonstrates that human phenotypes vary geographically. This conflation of human biological variation with the idea of race is a key exampl
Related Questions
- How can we use our understanding of human genetic variation to inform our understanding of race and to improve personal and public health?
- Is race a useful categorization to track lived experiences, sociopolitical injustices and racism?
- Is the idea of race a useful categorization of human biological variation?
