What is Race?

An exploratory essay

Our nation is perenially transfixed by debates over race relations. But what is racial identity in the first place?

On one theory, there are no races; race is just an arbitrary social construct.

Other theories view races as natural kinds. They define race biologically, in terms of ancestry or similar genetics.

Still other theories define race geographically, in terms of country of origin.

Yet more theories define race culturally, in terms of a people-group with a distinctive set of patterns and customs — their “folkways”, as the sociologist William Graham Sumner once put it.

But these are not clear-cut taxonomic markers. They can overlap in complex ways.

Thus, it might be more accurate to speak of racial characteristics rather than races.

On the one hand, people-groups can have objective characteristics; on the other hand, the characteristics we select for and combine to identify and distinguish one “race” from another is a social construct.

We might compare that to sports. Pro basketball players are taller than average. Pro football players and pro wrestlers are larger than average.

How you group people depends on your selection-criteria.

Although the defining characteristics may be objective, the selection-criteria are social conventions, based on what is deemed to be relevant for the purpose at hand. Different sports value different physical traits.

Likewise, racial categories may pick out certain objective characteristics, but why that particular combination is chosen, rather than some other set of commonalities, is a social construct.

The whole notion of “mixed race” presumes the notion of a pure race as the standard of comparison. But what some people consider a pure race is just the dominant racial status quo — after the dust settles.

Is there such a thing as a pure race, even in principle? To my knowledge there are roughly two or maybe three potential sources of racial differentiation:

(1) Random mutation

(2) Interracial “breeding” (pardon the term)

(3) Environmental adaptation

Let’s consider point 2.

Suppose the world was 99% Amerasian. Suppose that had been the case for 10 generations. Would that be mixed race? How could you tell? That would be the norm.

If, on that scenario, an Amerasian married a member of the 1% (let’s say, “Aryan”), that would be an interracial marriage.

If you didn’t already know that Amerasian kids were the result of biracial parentage, if you only had the result to judge by, how could you even tell that was “mixed race”?

Now point 3.

If racial differentiation is due to environmental factors, that would make country of origin determinative. But how could any particular region furnish an absolute standard of comparison? Again, if it’s due to environmental adaptation, then it’s relative to any given region. But to privilege one regional adaptation as “pure” is arbitrarily selective. What makes that purer than any other regional adaptation?

For an interesting piece tackling the nature of race by way of the X-Men, see the philosopher Jeremy Pierce’s paper in Introducing Philosophy through Pop Culture.