Race is a Social and Biological Construct

The idea that race is a purely social construct appears to have achieved almost universal acceptance within academia. However, this consensus is artificial and maintained by a taboo on the subject of race, particularly in the biological sciences. Here, I argue that the common-sense view that race has a biological basis but is unimportant for traits such as intelligence or character best fits the scientific data. I start by showing that most past biological discussions of race have focused on the wrong concepts. Specifically, population structure at the genomic level is irrelevant to most notions of race, which stress functional differences in a handful of traits. I therefore argue that the concept of ecotype, which is associated with local adaptation of a handful of traits in a highly connected network of populations, is the best descriptor of human races. I then explain the relationship between the social construction of race and its biological basis. The essential point here is that race is socially constructed from real biological variation. I conclude with a brief discussion of scientific racism, which I argue is better labeled pseudoscientific racism. I posit that stifling discussion of race by biologists has been counterproductive and misguided. When scientists refuse to refute the racist spin doctoring of biological data that is central to scientific racism, it gives the public the notion that the data are not on their side. Moreover, ideologically driven positions, such as races do not exist, erode public confidence in the scientific community.