Why the Biological Race Concept Continues to Shape Science and Society in the 21st Century

Despite the fact that for more than fifty years most evolutionary biologists, population geneticists, and social scientists have recognized that the concept of race is not a particularly accurate or useful methodological tool to aid our understanding of human genetic diversity or to improve our knowledge of the relationship between human genetic diversity and disease, the biological race concept continues to shape science, medicine, and public health practice. This talk will offer an overview of the history of the race concept in genetics in the United States during the 20th century, and examine the relationship between this history and the use of the variable race in contemporary genetics research. The history of the biological race concept can help both natural and social scientists understand the following: where did widely held beliefs about the genetic nature of racial differences come from? How did science come to justify the belief in the biological inferiority of certain racial groups? How have these ideas evolved over the course of the 20th century? Why has the concept persisted despite evidence that the biological race concept is not a particularly useful measure of human genetic diversity? Who in the sciences, both natural and social, resisted racial science? Finally, what can this history tell us of the risks of continuing to use the race concept in contemporary scientific, medical, and public health research?