9.1a Shared Biology
The pursuit of science—and pseudoscience—to show biological or genetic differences between racial groups to justify and preserve racial inequality is scientific racism. Scientific racism looks to discover and explain racial differences using biological explanations.
Science has proven that 99.9% of every person’s DNA is identical to that of all other humans. Anthropologists, biologists, geneticists, sociologists, and other scientists agree that genes interact with the environment, resulting in the physical and cultural diversity in humans (Fuentes et al., 2019; see also Chapter 8). Geneticists argue that even differences associated with ancestry are instead measuring environmental effects (Lewis et al., 2022). For example, latitude is related to the distribution of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Thus, skin color is an adaptive trait linked with the latitude in which people live (Deng & Xu, 2018; see also Race, Ethnicity, and Genetics Working Group, 2005).
Research on the relationship between genetic ancestry and health conditions has similarly found correlations but not underlying causal mechanisms. For instance, sickle-cell trait is an inherited blood disorder most common among Black people. Still, other groups are also likely to carry the trait, such as Hispanic people and White people from Southern Europe (American Society of Hematology, 2024). This trait is a protective adaptation to living in a geographic region with higher malaria rates (Allison, 1954), as these groups’ genetic ancestors did.
Race is thus not a biological concept, and it is impossible to sort humans into racial categories based solely on biology (Neal, 2017; Yudell et al., 2016). Racial categorization is socially constructed. Today, race is based on physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and eye shape. Individuals can identify their race in ways that may or may not accurately reflect their physical characteristics, so racial self-identification and perception are fluid and vary over time and place.
For example, Meghan Markle, wife of Britain’s Prince Harry, identifies as biracial because she has one White parent and one Black parent. Her light skin tone has offered her privileges, such as feeling more accepted by White people (Russell, 2022). However, the racism she experienced from the British press contributed to her and Prince Harry’s decision to step down as senior royals and move to the United States in 2020 (BBC, 2021).
Photo 9.1
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex
