Race (human categorization)

=== Social constructions ===
{{Main|Race and society|}}

As anthropologists and other evolutionary scientists have shifted away from the language of race to the term ''population'' to talk about genetic differences, [[History|historians]], [[cultural anthropology|cultural anthropologists]] and other [[social sciences|social scientists]] re-conceptualized the term "race" as a cultural category or [[Identity (social science)|identity]], i.e., a way among many possible ways in which a society chooses to divide its members into categories.

Many social scientists have replaced the word race with the word "[[Ethnic group#Ethnicity and race|ethnicity]]" to refer to self-identifying groups based on beliefs concerning shared culture, ancestry and history. Alongside empirical and conceptual problems with "race", following the [[Second World War]], evolutionary and social scientists were acutely aware of how beliefs about race had been used to justify discrimination, [[apartheid]], slavery, and genocide. This questioning gained momentum in the 1960s during the [[civil rights movement]] in the United States and the emergence of numerous anti-colonial movements worldwide. They thus came to believe that race itself is a social construct, a concept that was believed to correspond to an objective reality but which was believed in because of its social functions.<ref name="Gordon 1964" />

Craig Venter and Francis Collins of the National Institute of Health jointly made the announcement of the mapping of the human genome in 2000. Upon examining the data from the genome mapping, Venter realized that although the genetic variation within the human species is on the order of 1–3% (instead of the previously assumed 1%), the types of variations do not support the notion of genetically defined races. Venter said, "Race is a social concept. It's not a scientific one. There are no bright lines (that would stand out), if we could compare all the sequenced genomes of everyone on the planet.&nbsp;... When we try to apply science to try to sort out these social differences, it all falls apart."<ref name="FORA.tv 2008" />

Anthropologist Stephan Palmié has argued that race "is not a thing but a social relation";{{sfn|Palmié|2007}} or, in the words of [[Katya Gibel Mevorach]], "a metonym", "a human invention whose criteria for differentiation are neither universal nor fixed but have always been used to manage difference".{{sfn|Mevorach|2007}} As such, the use of the term "race" itself must be analyzed. Moreover, they argue that biology will not explain why or how people use the idea of race; only history and social relationships will.

[[Imani Perry]] has argued that race "is produced by social arrangements and political decision making",<ref>{{cite book |first=Imani |last=Perry |author-link=Imani Perry |title=More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States |location=New York |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |date=2011 |page=23}}</ref> and that "race is something that happens, rather than something that is. It is dynamic, but it holds no objective truth."<ref>{{cite book |first=Imani |last=Perry |author-link=Imani Perry |title=More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States |location=New York |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |date=2011 |page=24}}</ref> Similarly, ''[[Racial Culture: A Critique]]'' (2005), Richard T. Ford argued that while "there is no necessary correspondence between the ascribed identity of race and one's culture or personal sense of self" and "group difference is not intrinsic to members of social groups but rather contingent o[n] the social practices of group identification", the social practices of [[identity politics]] may coerce individuals into the "compulsory" enactment of "prewritten racial scripts".<ref>{{cite book |last=Ford |first=Richard T. |author-link=Richard Thompson Ford |title=Racial Culture: A Critique |date=2005 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=0-691-11960-0 |pages=117–118, 125–128}}</ref>

==== Brazil ====
{{Main|Race in Brazil}}
[[File:Redenção.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Portrait "Redenção de Cam" (1895), showing a Brazilian family becoming "whiter" each generation]]
Compared to 19th-century United States, 20th-century [[Demographics of Brazil|Brazil]] was characterized by a perceived relative absence of sharply defined racial groups. According to anthropologist [[Marvin Harris]], this pattern reflects a different history and different [[social relations]].

Race in Brazil was "biologized", but in a way that recognized the difference between ancestry (which determines [[genotype]]) and [[phenotypic]] differences. There, racial identity was not governed by rigid descent rule, such as the [[one-drop rule]], as it was in the United States. A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both parents, nor were there only a very limited number of categories to choose from,<ref name="Harris 1980" /> to the extent that full [[sibling]]s can pertain to different racial groups.<ref>{{cite journal |pmc=140919 |pmid=12509516 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0126614100 |volume=100 |issue=1 |title=Color and genomic ancestry in Brazilians |date=January 2003 |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |pages=177–182 |last1=Parra |first1=F. C. |last2=Amado |first2=R. C. |last3=Lambertucci |first3=J. R. |last4=Rocha |first4=J. |last5=Antunes |first5=C. M. |last6=Pena |first6=S. D. |bibcode=2003PNAS..100..177P |doi-access=free}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable floatleft"
|-
! colspan="4" |Self-reported ancestry of people from<br />Rio de Janeiro, by race or skin color (2000 survey)<ref name="Telles">{{cite book |pages=[https://archive.org/details/raceinanotherame0000tell/page/81 81–84] |title=Race in Another America: The significance of skin color in Brazil |first=Edward Eric |last=Telles |author-link=Edward Telles |chapter=Racial Classification |date=2004 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=0-691-11866-3 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/raceinanotherame0000tell/page/81}}</ref>
|-
! Ancestry!! ''brancos'' !! ''pardos''!! ''negros''
|-
| European only
| 48% || 6%||–
|-
| African only
| – ||12%||25%
|-
| Amerindian only
| – ||2%||–
|-
| African and European
| 23% ||34%||31%
|-
| Amerindian and European
| 14% ||6%||–
|-
| African and Amerindian
| – ||4%||9%
|-
| African, Amerindian and European
| 15% ||36%||35%
|-
| Total
| 100% ||100%||100%
|-
| Any African
| 38% ||86%||100%
|}

Over a dozen racial categories would be recognized in conformity with all the possible combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum, and not one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. That is, race referred preferentially to appearance, not heredity, and appearance is a poor indication of ancestry, because only a few genes are responsible for someone's skin color and traits: a person who is considered white may have more African ancestry than a person who is considered black, and the reverse can be also true about European ancestry.<ref>{{cite web |first=Silvia |last=Salek |date=10 July 2007 |title=BBC delves into Brazilians' roots |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6284806.stm |access-date=13 July 2009}}</ref> The complexity of racial classifications in Brazil reflects the extent of genetic mixing in [[Brazilian society]], a society that remains highly, but not strictly, [[social stratification|stratified]] along color lines. These [[Socioeconomic status|socioeconomic]] factors are also significant to the limits of racial lines, because a minority of ''[[pardo]]s'', or brown people, are likely to start declaring themselves white or black if socially upward,<ref>{{cite book |last=Ribeiro |first=Darcy |author-link=Darcy Ribeiro |title=O Povo Brasileiro |trans-title=The Brazilian People |publisher=Companhia de Bolso |edition=4th reprint |date=2008 |language=pt}}</ref> and being seen as relatively "whiter" as their perceived social status increases (much as in other regions of Latin America).<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Levine-Rasky |editor-first=Cynthia |date=2002 |title=Working through whiteness: international perspectives |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=978-0-7914-5340-7 |page=73 |quote='Money whitens' If any phrase encapsulates the association of whiteness and the modern in Latin America, this is it. It is a cliché formulated and reformulated throughout the region, a truism dependent upon the social experience that wealth is associated with whiteness, and that in obtaining the former one may become aligned with the latter (and vice versa).}}</ref>

[[Racial fluidity|Fluidity of racial categories]] aside, the "biologification" of race in Brazil referred above would match contemporary concepts of race in the United States quite closely, though, if Brazilians are supposed to choose their race as one among, Asian and Indigenous apart, three IBGE's census categories. While assimilated [[Amerindians]] and people with very high quantities of Amerindian ancestry are usually grouped as ''[[caboclo]]s'', a subgroup of ''pardos'' which roughly translates as both [[mestizo]] and [[hillbilly]], for those of lower quantity of Amerindian descent a higher European genetic contribution is expected to be grouped as a ''pardo''. In several genetic tests, people with less than 60-65% of European descent and 5–10% of Amerindian descent usually cluster with [[Afro-Brazilian]]s (as reported by the individuals), or 6.9% of the population, and those with about 45% or more of Subsaharan contribution most times do so (in average, Afro-Brazilian DNA was reported to be about 50% Subsaharan African, 37% European and 13% Amerindian).<ref name="plosone.org" /><ref name="afrobras">{{cite web |url=http://www.afrobras.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2112&Itemid=2 |title=Negros de origem européia |trans-title=Blacks of European origin |language=pt |website=afrobras.org.br |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124105905/http://www.afrobras.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2112&Itemid=2 |archive-date=24 November 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Genetic signatures of parental contribution in black and white populations in Brazil |doi=10.1590/S1415-47572009005000001 |date=2009 |last1=Guerreiro-Junior |first1=Vanderlei |last2=Bisso-Machado |first2=Rafael |last3=Marrero |first3=Andrea |last4=Hünemeier |first4=Tábita |last5=Salzano |first5=Francisco M. |last6=Bortolini |first6=Maria Cátira |journal=Genetics and Molecular Biology |volume=32 |pages=1–11 |pmid=21637639 |issue=1 |pmc=3032968}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Genetic heritage variability of Brazilians in even regional averages, 2009 study |doi=10.1590/S0100-879X2009005000026 |date=2009 |last1=Pena |first1=S. D. J. |last2=Bastos-Rodrigues |first2=L. |last3=Pimenta |first3=J. R. |last4=Bydlowski |first4=S. P. |journal=Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research |volume=42 |issue=10 |pages=870–876 |pmid=19738982 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|-
! colspan="11" |Ethnic groups in Brazil (census data)<ref>{{cite web |title=Brasil: 500 anos de povoamento |publisher=IBGE |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/povoamento/ |access-date=29 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923103736/http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/povoamento/ |archive-date=23 September 2009 |language=pt}}</ref>
|-
!Ethnic group || white || black || multiracial
|- style="text-align:right;"
| 1872 || 3,787,289 || 1,954,452 || 4,188,737
|- style="text-align:right;"
| 1940 || 26,171,778 || 6,035,869 || 8,744,365
|- style="text-align:right;"
| 1991 || 75,704,927 || 7,335,136 || 62,316,064
|}

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|-
! colspan="6" |Ethnic groups in Brazil (1872 and 1890)<ref name="Ramos">{{cite book |last=Ramos |first=Arthur |date=2003 |title=A mestiçagem no Brasil |trans-title=Miscegenation in Brazil |language=pt |publisher=EDUFAL |location=Maceió, Brazil |isbn=978-85-7177-181-9 |page=82}}</ref>
|-
! Years
! whites
! multiracial
! blacks
! Indians
! Total
|-
| 1872
| 38.1%
| 38.3%
| 19.7%
| 3.9%
| 100%
|-
| 1890
| 44.0%
| 32.4%
| 14.6%
| 9%
| 100%
|}

If a more consistent report with the genetic groups in the gradation of genetic mixing is to be considered (e.g. that would not cluster people with a balanced degree of African and non-African ancestry in the black group instead of the multiracial one, unlike elsewhere in Latin America where people of high quantity of African descent tend to classify themselves as mixed), more people would report themselves as white and ''pardo'' in Brazil (47.7% and 42.4% of the population as of 2010, respectively), because by research its population is believed to have between 65 and 80% of autosomal European ancestry, in average (also >35% of European mt-DNA and >95% of European Y-DNA).<ref name="plosone.org">{{cite journal |title=The Genomic Ancestry of Individuals from Different Geographical Regions of Brazil Is More Uniform Than Expected |date=2011 |first1=Sérgio D. J. |last1=Pena |first2=Giuliano |last2=Di Pietro |first3=Mateus |last3=Fuchshuber-Moraes |first4=Julia Pasqualini |last4=Genro |first5=Mara H. |last5=Hutz |first6=Fernanda de Souza Gomes |last6=Kehdy |first7=Fabiana |last7=Kohlrausch |first8=Luiz Alexandre Viana |last8=Magno |first9=Raquel Carvalho |last9=Montenegro |first10=Manoel Odorico |last10=Moraes |first11=Maria Elisabete Amaral |last11=de Moraes |first12=Milene Raiol |last12=de Moraes |first13=Élida B. |last13=Ojopi |first14=Jamila A. |last14=Perini |first15=Clarice |last15=Racciopi |first16=Ândrea Kely Campos |last16=Ribeiro-dos-Santos |first17=Fabrício |last17=Rios-Santos |first18=Marco A. |last18=Romano-Silva |first19=Vinicius A. |last19=Sortica |first20=Guilherme |last20=Suarez-Kurtz |journal=[[PLoS One]] |volume=6 |issue=2 |page=e17063 |pmid=21359226 |pmc=3040205 |editor-last=Harpending |editor-first=Henry |bibcode=2011PLoSO...617063P |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0017063 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.alvaro.com.br/pdf/trabalhoCientifico/ARTIGO_BRASIL_LILIAN.pdf |title=Allele frequencies of 15 STRs in a representative sample of the Brazilian population |doi=10.1016/j.fsigen.2009.05.006 |date=2010 |last1=De Assis Poiares |first1=Lilian |last2=De Sá Osorio |first2=Paulo |last3=Spanhol |first3=Fábio Alexandre |last4=Coltre |first4=Sidnei César |last5=Rodenbusch |first5=Rodrigo |last6=Gusmão |first6=Leonor |last7=Largura |first7=Alvaro |last8=Sandrini |first8=Fabiano |last9=Da Silva |first9=Cláudia Maria Dornelles |journal=Forensic Science International: Genetics |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=e61–e63 |pmid=20129458 |archive-date=8 April 2011 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5xmleMZgv?url=http://www.alvaro.com.br/pdf/trabalhoCientifico/ARTIGO_BRASIL_LILIAN.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |url=http://bdtd.bce.unb.br/tedesimplificado/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=3873 |first=Neide Maria de |last=Oliveira Godinho |title=O Impacto das Migrações na Constituição Genética de Populações Latino-Americanas |trans-title=The Impact of Migration on the Genetic Constitution of Latin American Populations |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706162307/http://bdtd.bce.unb.br/tedesimplificado/tde_arquivos/36/TDE-2008-08-21T100337Z-3085/Publico/2008_NeideMOGodinho.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2011 |type=PhD thesis |publisher=[[Universidade de Brasília]] |date=2008 |language=pt}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Reinaldo José |last=Lopes |date=5 October 2009 |title=DNA de brasileiro é 80% europeu, indica estudo |website=Folha de S.Paulo |url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ciencia/ult306u633465.shtml |trans-title=Brazilian DNA is nearly 80% European, indicates study |language=pt}}</ref>

From the last decades of the [[Empire of Brazil|Empire]] until the 1950s, the proportion of the white population increased significantly while Brazil welcomed 5.5 million immigrants between 1821 and 1932, not much behind its neighbor Argentina with 6.4 million,<ref name="whitaker">{{cite book |title=Argentina |first=Arthur P. |last=Whitaker |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |date=1984}}, Cited in {{cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/1/90.01.06.x.html |title=Yale immigration study |publisher=[[Yale University]]}}</ref> and it received more European immigrants in its colonial history than the United States. Between 1500 and 1760, 700.000 Europeans settled in Brazil, while 530.000 Europeans settled in the United States for the same given time.<ref>{{cite book |first=Renato Pinto |last=Venâncio |chapter=Presença portuguesa: de colonizadores a imigrantes |trans-chapter=Portuguese presence: from colonizers to immigrants |title=Brasil: 500 anos de povoamento |trans-title=Brazil: 500 years of settlement |publisher=IBGE |location=Rio de Janeiro |date=2000}}, Relevant extract available here: {{cite web |url=https://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses |access-date=16 October 2021 |title=território brasileiro e povoamento |trans-title=Brazilian territory and settlement |language=pt |publisher=IBGE}}</ref> Thus, the historical construction of race in Brazilian society dealt primarily with gradations between persons of majority European ancestry and little minority groups with otherwise lower quantity therefrom in recent times.

==== European Union ====
According to the [[Council of the European Union]]:
{{cquote
|quote=The European Union rejects theories which attempt to determine the existence of separate human races.
|source=Directive 2000/43/EC<ref name="32000L0043">{{CELEX|32000L0043|text=Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin}}</ref>
}}
The [[European Union]] uses the terms racial origin and ethnic origin synonymously in its documents and according to it "the use of the term 'racial origin' in this directive does not imply an acceptance of such [racial] theories".<ref name="32000L0043" /><ref>{{cite web|title=European Union Directives on the Prohibition of Discrimination|url=http://www.humanrights.is/human-rights-and-iceland/equality--non-discrimination/|work=HumanRights.is|publisher=Icelandic Human Rights Centre|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724051826/http://www.humanrights.is/human-rights-and-iceland/equality--non-discrimination|archive-date=24 July 2012}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=September 2015}} [[Ian Haney López|Haney López]] warns that using "race" as a category within the law tends to legitimize its existence in the popular imagination. In the diverse geographic context of [[Europe]], ethnicity and ethnic origin are arguably more resonant and are less encumbered by the ideological baggage associated with "race". In European context, historical resonance of "race" underscores its problematic nature. In some states, it is strongly associated with laws promulgated by the [[Nazi]] and [[Fascist]] governments in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, in 1996, the [[European Parliament]] adopted a resolution stating that "the term should therefore be avoided in all official texts".{{sfn|Bell|2009|p={{page needed|date=December 2021}}}}

The concept of racial origin relies on the notion that human beings can be separated into biologically distinct "races", an idea generally rejected by the scientific community. Since all human beings belong to the same species, the [[European Commission against Racism and Intolerance|ECRI]] (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance) rejects theories based on the existence of different "races". However, in its Recommendation ECRI uses this term in order to ensure that those persons who are generally and erroneously perceived as belonging to "another race" are not excluded from the protection provided for by the legislation. The law claims to reject the existence of "race", yet penalize situations where someone is treated less favourably on this ground.{{sfn|Bell|2009|p={{page needed|date=December 2021}}}}

==== United States ====
{{Main|Race and ethnicity in the United States}}
{{See also|Miscegenation#Admixture in the United States|Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States}}

The immigrants to the [[United States]] came from every region of Europe, Africa, and Asia. They [[miscegenation|mixed]] among themselves and with the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous inhabitants of the continent]]. In the United States most people who self-identify as [[African American]] have some [[European ethnic groups|European ancestors]], while many people who identify as [[European American]] have some African or Amerindian ancestors.

Since the early history of the United States, Amerindians, African Americans, and European Americans have been classified as belonging to different races. Efforts to track mixing between groups led to a proliferation of categories, such as [[mulatto]] and [[octoroon]]. The criteria for membership in these races diverged in the late 19th century. During the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] era, increasing numbers of Americans began to consider anyone with "[[one-drop theory|one drop]]" of known "Black blood" to be Black, regardless of appearance. By the early 20th century, this notion was made statutory in many states. [[Amerindians]] continue to be defined by a certain percentage of "Indian blood" (called ''[[Blood quantum laws|blood quantum]]''). To be White one had to have perceived "pure" White ancestry. The one-drop rule or [[hypodescent]] rule refers to the convention of defining a person as racially black if he or she has any known African ancestry. This rule meant that those that were mixed race but with some discernible African ancestry were defined as black. The one-drop rule is specific to not only those with African ancestry but to the United States, making it a particularly African-American experience.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sexton |first=Jared |title=Amalgamation Schemes |url=https://archive.org/details/amalgamationsche00jare |url-access=registration |date=2008 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]]}}</ref>

The [[United States Census|decennial censuses]] conducted since 1790 in the United States created an incentive to establish racial categories and fit people into these categories.<ref name="nobles" />

The term "[[Hispanic]]" as an [[ethnonym]] emerged in the 20th century with the rise of migration of laborers from the [[Hispanophone|Spanish-speaking countries]] of [[Latin America]] to the United States. Today, the word "Latino" is often used as a synonym for "Hispanic". The definitions of both terms are non-race specific, and include people who consider themselves to be of distinct races (Black, White, Amerindian, Asian, and mixed groups).<ref name="OMB 1997" /> However, there is a common misconception in the US that Hispanic/Latino is a race<ref>{{cite book |last=Horsman |first=Reginald |title=Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Radial Anglo-Saxonism |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |date=1981 |page=210}}, This reference is speaking in historic terms but there is not reason to think that this perception has altered much</ref> or sometimes even that national origins such as Mexican, Cuban, Colombian, Salvadoran, etc. are races. In contrast to "Latino" or "Hispanic", "[[Anglo]]" refers to non-Hispanic [[White American]]s or non-Hispanic [[European American]]s, most of whom speak the English language but are not necessarily of English descent.
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