Question

Is race a useful categorization for tracking socio-political injustices? Why or why not?

Answer 1

There is a spectrum of views among contemporary scientists like Leroi who still assert race is a useful classification for human biological variation. On one end stand scientific “true believers” who treat races as natural entities. Statistically explaining “a little bit” about something may actually end up doing more harm than good if one begins to forget the "lack of precision" of the concept. This is the first problem when one substitutes race for human variation: one tends to forget about the 94% of variation that race fails to statistically explain.A similar refrain applies in the case of human genetic variation. Geographic location is the best single explanation for human genetic variation. There are different potential paths to racial justice.In summary, there is no good scientific reason beyond word length, convenience, and maintenance of the status quo (laziness in short), to continue to racialize human variation. Moreover, doing so may cause harm.

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