Race (human categorization)

== Defining race ==
Modern scholarship views racial categories as socially constructed, that is, race is not intrinsic to human beings but rather an [[Identity (social science)|identity]] created, often by socially dominant groups, to establish meaning in a social context. Different cultures define different racial groups, often focused on the largest groups of social relevance, and these definitions can change over time.
* In South Africa, the [[Population Registration Act, 1950]] recognized only White, Black, and [[Coloured]], with Indians added later.<ref name="Pillay2019">{{cite book |last=Pillay |first=Kathryn |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity |chapter=Indian Identity in South Africa |date=2019 |pages=77–92|doi=10.1007/978-981-13-2898-5_9 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-981-13-2897-8 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
* The government of Myanmar recognizes eight "[[List of ethnic groups in Myanmar|major national ethnic races]]".
* The Brazilian census classifies people into brancos (Whites), pardos (multiracial), pretos (Blacks), amarelos (Asians), and indigenous (see [[Race and ethnicity in Brazil]]), though many people use different terms to identify themselves.
* The [[United States Census Bureau]] proposed but then withdrew plans to add a new category to classify [[MENA|Middle Eastern and North African]] peoples in the [[2020 United States census|2020 U.S. census]], over a dispute over whether this classification should be considered a white ethnicity or a separate race.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/01/29/581541111/no-middle-eastern-or-north-african-category-on-2020-census-bureau-says |title=No Middle Eastern Or North African Category On 2020 Census, Bureau Says |newspaper=[[NPR]] |date=29 January 2018 |access-date=16 August 2019 |last=Wang |first=Hansi Lo}}</ref>
* Legal [[definitions of whiteness in the United States]] used before the [[civil rights movement]] were often challenged for specific groups.
* [[Historical race concepts]] have included a wide variety of schemes to divide local or worldwide populations into races and sub-races.

The establishment of racial boundaries often involves the subjugation of groups defined as racially inferior, as in the [[one-drop rule]] used in the 19th-century United States to exclude those with any amount of African ancestry from the dominant racial grouping, defined as "[[White people|white]]".<ref name="Barnshaw">{{cite book |last=Barnshaw |first=John |editor-last=Schaefer |editor-first=Richard T. |title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |volume=1 |date=2008 |publisher=[[Sage Publications]] |isbn=978-1-45-226586-5 |pages=1091–1093 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMUola6pDnkC&q=race+social+construction&pg=PT1217 |chapter=Race}}</ref> Such racial identities reflect the cultural attitudes of imperial powers dominant during the age of [[History of colonialism|European colonial expansion]].{{refn|name=Britannica}} This view rejects the notion that race is [[biologically]] defined.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=S. M. |last2=Templeton |first2=A. R. |date=2003 |title=Race and Genomics |journal=[[New England Journal of Medicine]] |volume=348 |issue=25 |pages=2581–2582 |doi=10.1056/nejm200306193482521 |pmid=12815151}}</ref>{{sfn|Templeton|2002|pp=31–56}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Steve |last=Olson |title=Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes |location=Boston |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |date=2002}}</ref>{{sfn|Templeton|2013}}

According to geneticist [[David Reich (geneticist)|David Reich]], "while race may be a social construct, differences in genetic ancestry that happen to correlate to many of today's racial constructs are real".<ref>{{cite news |last=Reich |first=David |title=How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/sunday/genetics-race.html |access-date=8 October 2019 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190908212845/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/opinion/sunday/genetics-race.html |archive-date=8 September 2019 |quote=Groundbreaking advances in DNA sequencing technology have been made over the last two decades. These advances enable us to measure with exquisite accuracy what fraction of an individual's genetic ancestry traces back to, say, West Africa 500 years ago – before the mixing in the Americas of the West African and European gene pools that were almost completely isolated for the last 70,000 years. With the help of these tools, we are learning that while race may be a social construct, differences in genetic ancestry that happen to correlate to many of today's racial constructs are real. Recent genetic studies have demonstrated differences across populations not just in the genetic determinants of simple traits such as skin color, but also in more complex traits like bodily dimensions and susceptibility to diseases.}}</ref> In response to Reich, a group of 67 scientists from a broad range of disciplines wrote that his concept of race was "flawed" as "the ''meaning and significance'' of the groups is produced through social interventions".<ref>{{cite news |date=30 March 2018 |title=How Not To Talk About Race And Genetics |website=[[Buzzfeed News]] |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/bfopinion/race-genetics-david-reich#.jqQ6X6057b |url-status=live |access-date=8 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830074324/https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/bfopinion/race-genetics-david-reich |archive-date=30 August 2019 |quote=[The] robust body of scholarship recognizes the existence of geographically based genetic variation in our species, but shows that such variation is not consistent with biological definitions of race. Nor does that variation map precisely onto ever changing socially defined racial groups.}}</ref>

Although commonalities in physical traits such as facial features, skin color, and hair texture comprise part of the race concept, this linkage is a social distinction rather than an inherently biological one.{{refn|name=Barnshaw}} Other dimensions of racial groupings include shared history, traditions, and language. For instance, [[African-American English]] is a language spoken by many [[African Americans]], especially in areas of the United States where racial segregation exists. Furthermore, people often self-identify as members of a race for political reasons.{{refn|name=Barnshaw}}

When people define and talk about a particular conception of race, they create a [[social reality]] through which social categorization is achieved.{{sfn|Lee|1997}} In this sense, races are said to be social constructs.<ref name="Blank; Smaje">See:
* {{harvnb|Blank|Dabady|Citro|2004}}
* {{harvnb|Smaje|1997}}</ref> These constructs develop within various legal, economic, and [[sociopolitical]] contexts, and may be the effect, rather than the cause, of {{clarify span|major social situations.|date=February 2020}}<ref name="Lee; Nobles; Morgan">See:
* {{harvnb|Lee|1997}}
* {{harvnb|Nobles|2000}}
* {{harvnb|Morgan|1975}} as cited in {{harvnb|Lee|1997|page=407}}</ref> While race is understood to be a social construct by many, most scholars agree that race has real material effects in the lives of people through [[Institutionalization|institutionalized]] practices of preference and [[discrimination]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Socioeconomic factors, in combination with early but enduring views of race, have led to considerable suffering within disadvantaged racial groups.<ref name="Morgan; Smedley; et al." /> [[Racial discrimination]] often coincides with racist mindsets, whereby the individuals and ideologies of one group come to perceive the members of an [[Ingroups and outgroups|outgroup]] as both racially defined and morally inferior.<ref name="Lee 1997, citing M&A" /> As a result, racial groups possessing relatively little power often find themselves excluded or oppressed, while [[Hegemony|hegemonic]] individuals and [[institution]]s are charged with holding racist attitudes.<ref name="sivanandan" /> Racism has led to many instances of tragedy, including [[slavery]] and [[genocide]].<ref name="owens" />

In some countries, [[Law enforcement agency|law enforcement]] uses race to [[Offender profiling|profile]] suspects. This use of racial categories is frequently criticized for perpetuating an outmoded understanding of human biological variation, and promoting stereotypes. Because in some societies racial groupings correspond closely with patterns of [[social stratification]], for [[social scientists]] studying social inequality, race can be a significant [[Dependent and independent variables|variable]]. As [[Sociology|sociological]] factors, racial categories may in part reflect [[Subjectivity|subjective]] attributions, [[Self-identity|self-identities]], and social institutions.<ref name="King 2007" /><ref name="schaefer" />

Scholars continue to debate the degrees to which racial categories are biologically warranted and socially constructed.<ref name="Brace; Gill; Lee" /> For example, in 2008, John Hartigan Jr. argued for a view of race that focused primarily on culture, but which does not ignore the potential relevance of biology or genetics.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hartigan |first=John |title=Is Race Still Socially Constructed? The Recent Controversy over Race and Medical Genetics |journal=Science as Culture |date=June 2008 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=163–193 |doi=10.1080/09505430802062943 |s2cid=18451795 }}</ref> Accordingly, the racial [[paradigm]]s employed in different disciplines vary in their emphasis on [[Biological reductionism|biological reduction]] as contrasted with societal construction.

In the social sciences, theoretical frameworks such as [[racial formation theory]] and [[critical race theory]] investigate implications of race as social construction by exploring how the images, ideas and assumptions of race are expressed in everyday life. A large body of scholarship has traced the relationships between the historical, social production of race in legal and criminal language, and their effects on the policing and disproportionate incarceration of certain groups.