The term
race or
racial group usually refers to the
categorization of
humans into
populations or
groups on the basis of various sets of
heritable characteristics.
[1] The physical features commonly seen as indicating race are salient visual traits such as
skin color,
cranial or
facial features and
hair texture.
[1][2]Conceptions of race, as well as specific ways of grouping races, vary by culture and over time, and are often controversial for scientific as well as social and political reasons. The controversy ultimately revolves around whether or not the socially constructed and perpetuated beliefs regarding race are biologically warranted; and the degree to which differences in ability and achievement are a product of inherited "racial" (i.e., genetic) traits.[3][4]
Some argue that the taxonomic concept of race, although valid in regards to other species, does not (currently) apply to humans.[5] Many scientists have pointed out that traditional definitions of race are imprecise, arbitrary, have many exceptions, have many gradations, and that the numbers of races delineated vary according to the culture making the racial distinctions. Thus, those rejecting the notion of race typically do so on the grounds that such definitions and the categorizations which follow from them are contradicted by the results of genetic research.[6]
Today many scientists study human genotypic and phenotypic variation using concepts such as "population" and "clinal gradation". The academic consensus is that, while racial categories may be marked by sets of common phenotypic or genotypic traits, the popular idea of "race" is a social construct without base in scientific fact.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Nonetheless, when divorced from its popular connotations, the concept of race may be useful. According to forensic anthropologist George W. Gill, blanket "race denial" not only contradicts biological evidence, but may stem from "politically motivated censorship" in the belief that "race promotes racism".[4]
