- Question
What is "race"?
Race is one way humans classify one another. Yet, views of how humans are classified differ between person-to-person and even country-to-country. The debate of "what race is" has important - and dangerous - implications across society and between individuals.
Race is a biological reality
Humans are different from each other - physically, culturally, linguistically, psychologically. Proponents of race as a biological reality view differences as anchored in genetic differences at a group level. Racial groups have key characteristics that make them unique and different from others.
Race is a social construct
This position holds that race is a social construct rather than a biological fact. It argues that there is no scientific evidence that humans divide into distinct biological races, that racial categories shift across time and place, and that race is self-identified and changeable.
Race is a social reality with biological consequences
This position holds that race is a social reality with real biological consequences. It argues that, while race is socially constructed, social and cultural circumstances shape a person's environment — which in turn produces measurable biological effects, such as differences in health.