Introduction
Race is a concept used to refer to people who share the same inherited characteristics. These characteristics range from physical appearance to skin color, facial features, and stature. The concept of race has been a center of discussion among many scholars across the globe. The debate concerns whether race can be categorized as biological or social (Bryant et al., 2022). The need to answer this fundamental question has attracted many scholars to the study. This literature review will explore the vast body of researched knowledge and discoveries to challenge the idea of viewing race as a biological or genetic entity and provide a detailed justification of the notion that race is a social concept (Lett et al., 2021). Thus, the discussion will outline the comprehensive overview of other scholars in an attempt to understand the complexities surrounding the idea of race.
The Historical Perspective of Race
In the past, race was used to categorize and differentiate human populations. This is indicated by the colonization based on the people’s color. The Europeans, for instance, used the concept of race to colonize humans with different skin colors. Although other scholars argue that this mode of classification lacked biological foundations, early racial theories such as those developed by Carl and Johann differentiated people based on physical characteristics, articulating the view of race as a social concept (Roberts & Rollins, 2020). Additionally, it is easier to see people worldwide being categorized based on visible skin differences. A good example is the scientific identification of nine different races based on height, thin lips, thick lips, dark skin, and light skin. These races are African, American Indian, Asian, Australian, European, Indian, Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian. The existence of these races for centuries without any tangible evidence of categorizing people based on biological construct firmly leaves race a social concept.
Genetic Variation Within a Race
A great sense of consistency is depicted across many genetic research studies, namely that genetic traits vary considerably among people of the same race. Ideally, it could have been expected that the genetic traits within the same race could be similar if race was more biological concept than social. However, the trait variation among people of different races has been found to resemble one another. This contradicts the notion put forward by those proposing race to be a biological concept (Jablonski, 2021). In this case, there is no clear distinction between the races, thus making the race a social concept rather than a biological concept. Nevertheless, grouping people based on race ranges exponentially across societies. Skin, hair texture, and facial features are not associated with an individual’s genetics.
The overlap in Genetic Trait
Many literature analyses have pointed out the biologists’ failure to prove the existing traditions associated with the existence of multiple traits, hence challenging the neat alignment of the racial categories (Rex, 2020). The scientific documentation of people from different backgrounds exhibiting similar characteristics in their genetic composition is vast. Additionally, there is evidence that people from the same background have different genetic compositions. The attempt by scientists to provide a rationale for these differences has been futile. This is due to the lack of knowledge and tools that can be used to examine the more profound and underlying differences across the races.
Social and Economic Perspective
In many societies, there are records of profound social and economic manipulation due to racial disparities. Misappropriations of funds due to this concept make it more of a social concept than biological (Hochman, 2021). There is no instance that race differences have failed to contribute to the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges. In most cases, the racial disparities in such societies are closely linked with environmental factors such as climate and sunlight exposure (Mersha & Beck, 2020). This implies that individuals of a different race can be converted easily to an alien race depending on the cultural and environmental factors surrounding them. For this reason, it is justifiable to say that race is more of a social than a biological concept.
Intersectionality Identities
According to Crenshaw 2021, individuals in society may possess multiple social identities. These identities include socioeconomic status, gender, and skin color. In these cases, the factors are not independent but dependent on each other; this implies that the features interact to bring about the person’s experiences. However, using a biological view to show that an individual can possess such multiple traits is impossible.
Conclusion
In summary, race is the classification of people based on their physical and visible differences, such as skin tone, hair texture, and body height. Race has been a topic of discussion for centuries based on the attempt to classify it as a social or biological concept (King, 2022). However, from the above discussion, the concept of race being social is more convincing than it being biological by looking at its historical view of how people were classified and grouped based on skin color. The theories explaining race as a social concept are well-informed and carry a significant form of evidence. The evidence provided by scholars based on prevailing factors such as social and economic disparities, intersectionality, and cultural and environmental factors has made it clear that race is a social concept and not a biological concept as people think. Furthermore, the emphasis on genetic variation within a race has given a comprehensive knowledge of race as a social concept. Understanding the above-discussed evidence is vital for challenging stereotypes and addressing the inequalities arising due to race.
References
Crenshaw, K. (2021). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. Droit et société, 108, 465.
Hochman, A. (2021). Janus‐faced race: Is race biological, social, or mythical? American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 175(2), 453-464.
Rex, J. (2020). Race relations in sociological theory. In Theories of race and racism (pp. 174-179). Routledge.
King, J. C. (2022). The biology of race. Univ of California Press.
Roberts, D. E., & Rollins, O. (2020). Why sociology matters to race and biosocial science. Annual Review of Sociology, pp. 46, 195–214.
Bryant, B. E., Jordan, A., & Clark, U. S. (2022). Race as a social construct in psychiatry research and practice. JAMA psychiatry, 79(2), 93-94.
Jablonski, N. G. (2021). Skin color and race. American journal of physical anthropology, 175(2), 437-447.
Mersha, T. B., & Beck, A. F. (2020). The social, economic, political, and genetic value of race and ethnicity in 2020. Human Genomics, 14(1), 1-5.
Blakey, M. L. (2021). Understanding racism in physical (biological) anthropology. American journal of physical anthropology, 175(2), 316–325.
Benn Torres, J. (2020). Anthropological perspectives on genomic data, genetic ancestry, and race. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 171, 74-86.
Duggan, C. P., Kurpad, A., Stanford, F. C., Sunguya, B., & Wells, J. C. (2020). Race, ethnicity, and racism in the nutrition literature: an update for 2020. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 112(6), 1409–1414.
Lett, E., Asabor, E., Beltrán, S., Cannon, A. M., & Arah, O. A. (2022). Conceptualizing, contextualizing, and operationalizing race in quantitative health sciences research. The Annals of Family Medicine, 20(2), 157-163.
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