This chapter discusses the concept of “race” as it is applied to
humans. It shows how the biological and social categories of race
are largely unrelated, and demonstrates this by discussing the
construction of race in Brazil, Japan, and the United States.
Human Diversity and
“Race”
Race: A Discredited Concept in
Biology
► In
biological terms, a race is a
geographically isolated subdivision of a
species that can reproduce with individuals
from other subspecies of the same species,
but does not because of its geographic
isolation.
► Ethnicity and race are not synonymous,
although American culture does not
discriminate between the two terms.
Races Are Not Biologically
Distinct
► Race
is supposed to describe genetic variation, but
racial categories (particularly early on) are based
on phenotypes.
 Phenotypes are the product of genetic, developmental,
and environmental factors.
► The
so-called three great races (white, black, and
yellow) are more a reflection of European
colonialist politics than an accurate representation
of human biological diversity.
 Even skin color-based race models that include more than three
categories do not accurately represent the wide range of skin color
diversity among human populations.
Fundamental Problems with
Phenotype-Based Race.
► Populations
grouped into one race based
upon phenotypic similarity may be
genetically distinct; such similarities may be
the result of parallel evolution or other
factors.
► Genetic traits occur together due to the
selective forces of the environments in
which they evolved, and therefore do not
constitute an internally coherent “type.”
American Anthropological
Association’s Statement on
“Race”
► Human populations are not unambiguous, clearly
►
►
►
►
demarcated, biologically distinct groups.
There is greater genetic variation within racial groups than
between them.
Physical variations are distributed gradually rather than
abruptly through space.
Physical variations in human populations have no meaning
other than the social ones societies attribute to them.
Historically, racial categories have been used to divide,
rank, and control populations ethnically separate from
Western Europe.
 Some populations have been assigned to a perpetual low status
(e.g., African-Americans).
Explaining Skin Color.
► Natural
selection
► Variation in skin color is determined by the
amount of melanin in the skin cells, which is
in turn genetically determined.
► Prior to the sixteenth century, darker
skinned populations were closest to the
equator, while lighter skinned populations
were closer to the poles.
Selective Advantages and
Disadvantages of Skin Color
► Light
skin in the tropics is selected against
because it burns more easily
► Sunburn impairs the body's ability to withstand
heat by reducing the skin’s ability to sweat.
► Light skin is more susceptible to skin cancer.
► The effect of sunlight on vitamin D formation
indicates how dark skin might have been selected
for in tropical environments
► Light skin might have been selected for in lowsunlight environments, and against in the tropics.
Social Race
as it is used in everyday discourse,
refers to a social category, rather than a
biological category.
► Hypodescent: Race in the United States
► “Race,”
 In the United States, race is most commonly
ascribed to people without reference to
genotype.
 In extreme cases, offspring of “genetically
mixed” unions are ascribed entirely to the lower
status race of one parent, an example of the
process called hypodescent.
Race in the Census
► The
U.S. Census Bureau has been gathering data
by race since 1790 because the Constitution
specified that a slave counted as three-fifths of a
white person, and because Indians were not
taxed.
► More recently, the way in which information
regarding race is collected has been hotly
debated.
 Some social scientists and interested citizens have been working to
add a “multiracial” category to the census.
 This “multiracial” category has been opposed by the NAACP and
the National Council of La Raza because both groups feel that the
communities they represent will lose access to funding, resources,
and jobs if their numbers as counted by the census go down.
Race in the Census (cont.)
► The
choice of “some other race” has more than
doubled from 1980 and 2000.
 This represents an imprecision in and dissatisfaction
with the existing categories.
 Also, the number of interracial marriages and children is
increasing.
► Comparing
the U.S. with Canada, minorities
represent a smaller percentage of the population,
with a significantly smaller black population and a
much larger percentage of people who identify
themselves as Asian.
Not Us: Race in Japan
►
►
►
►
Despite the presence of a substantial (10%), various
minority population, the dominant racial ideology of Japan
describes the country as racially and ethnically
homogeneous.
Dominant Japanese use a clear “us-not us” dichotomy as
the basis for their construction of race.
While dominant Japanese perceive their construction of
race to be based upon biology, the burakumin construct
provides evidence to the contrary.
 Burakumin are descendants of a low-status social class.
 Despite the fact that burakumin are genetically indistinguishable
from the dominant population, they are treated as a different race.
The mixed Japanese-Koreans are treated as wholly foreign, despite
otherwise complete cultural and linguistic assimilation.
Phenotype and Fluidity: Race in
Brazil
► While
it has some historical and social similarities
with the United States, race in Brazil is very
different from race in the United States and Japan.
► The Brazilian construction of race is attuned to
relatively slight phenotypic differences.
 More than 500 distinct racial labels have been reported.
► The
complex flexibility of Brazilian race categories
has made racial discrimination less likely to occur
on the same scale as in the United States and
Japan.
Stratification and “Intelligence”
► Over
the centuries, dominant groups have
used racial ideology to justify, explain, and
preserve their privileged social positions.
► Anthropologists know that most of the
behavioral variation among human groups
rests on culture not biology.
► The capacities for culture are equivalent in
all human populations.
Stratification and “Intelligence”
► Within
any stratified society, differences in
performance between economic, social, and
ethnic groups reflect their different
experiences and opportunities, not
biological differences.
► There is no conclusive evidence for
biologically based contrasts in intelligence
between rich and poor, black and white, or
men and women.
Stratification and “Intelligence”
► The
best indicators of how any individual
will perform on an intelligence test are
environmental, such as educational,
economic, and social background.
► All standard tests are culture-bound and
biased because they reflect the training and
life experiences of those who develop and
administer them.
Standardized testing
►
►
►
An environmental explanation acknowledges that for many reasons,
both genetic and environmental, some people are smarter than others;
however, these differences in intelligence cannot be generalized to
characterize whole populations or social groups.
Psychologists have come up with many ways to measure intelligence,
but there are problems with all of them.
Intelligence tests reflect the experiences of the people who write them.
 Middle- and upper-class children do well because they share the test
makers’ educational expectations and standards.
 The SATs claim to measure intellectual aptitude but they also measure the
type and quality of high school education, linguistic and cultural
background, and parental wealth.
 Studies have shown that performance on the SATs can be improved by
coaching and preparation, placing those students who can pay for an SAT
preparation course at an advantage.
Standardized testing
► Cultural
biases in testing affect performance by
people in other cultures as well as different groups
in the same nation.
► Native Americans scored the lowest of any group
in the U.S., but when the environment during
growth and development for Native Americans is
similar to that of middle-class whites, the test
scores tend to equalize (e.g., the Osage Indians).
► At the start of World War I, African-Americans
living in the north scored on average better than
whites living in the south due to the better public