Race as biology is fiction, racism as a social problem is real: Anthropological and historical perspectives on the social construction of race.
2005/01/01 by Audrey Smedley, Brian D. Smedley · 1,264 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Social Sciences · #Anthropology #Biology #Context (archaeology) #Cultural Competency in Health Care #Demography #Epistemology #Gender studies #Human biology #Population #Race (biology) #Race, Genetics, and Society #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Racism #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.60.1.16
published in American Psychologist 60(1), 16-26 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2005/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract
Racialized science seeks to explain human population differences in health, intelligence, education, and wealth as the consequence of immutable, biologically based differences between "racial" groups. Recent advances in the sequencing of the human genome and in an understanding of biological correlates of behavior have fueled racialized science, despite evidence that racial groups are not genetically discrete, reliably measured, or scientifically meaningful. Yet even these counterarguments often fail to take into account the origin and history of the idea of race. This article reviews the origins of the concept of race, placing the contemporary discussion of racial differences in an anthropological and historical context.
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