Race and genetics

Researchers have investigated the relationship between race and genetics as part of efforts to understand how biology may or may not contribute to human racial categorization. Today, the consensus among scientists is that race is a social construct, and that using it as a proxy for genetic differences among populations is misleading.^[1][2]

Many constructions of race are associated with phenotypical traits and geographic ancestry, and scholars like Carl Linnaeus have proposed scientific models for the organization of race since at least the 18th century. Following the discovery of Mendelian genetics and the mapping of the human genome, questions about the biology of race have often been framed in terms of genetics.^[3] A wide range of research methods have been employed to examine patterns of human variation and their relations to ancestry and racial groups, including studies of individual traits,^[4] studies of large populations and genetic clusters,^[5] and studies of genetic risk factors for disease.^[6]

Research into race and genetics has also been criticized as emerging from, or contributing to, scientific racism. Genetic studies of traits and populations have been used to justify social inequalities associated with race,^[7] despite the fact that patterns of human variation have been shown to be mostly clinal,^[8] with human genetic code being approximately 99.6% – 99.9% identical between individuals and without clear boundaries between groups.^[9][10]

Some researchers have argued that race can act as a proxy for genetic ancestry because individuals of the same racial category may share a common ancestry, but this view has fallen increasingly out of favor among experts.^[2][11] The mainstream view is that it is necessary to distinguish between biology and the social, political, cultural, and economic factors that contribute to conceptions of race.^[12][13]

Phenotype may have a tangential connection to DNA, but it is still only a rough proxy that would omit various other genetic information.^[2][14][15] Today, in a somewhat similar way that "gender" is differentiated from the more clear "biological sex", scientists state that potentially "race" / phenotype can be differentiated from the more clear "ancestry".^[16] However, this system has also still come under scrutiny as it may fall into the same problems – which would be large, vague groupings with little genetic value.^[17]