3.2 ‘Race’

The word ‘race’ has largely been discredited in academic and policy discussions. You will notice that in this course, as elsewhere in the course, we have adopted the now common practice of putting the term ‘race’ in inverted commas, or ‘scare quotes’ as they are sometimes tellingly known. This is to indicate that, in current thinking, the idea of there being distinct ‘races’ and that human beings can be divided up on ‘racial’ grounds has been discredited. Racial thinking was at its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries and was associated with the ideologies of empire and colonialism. Ideas about distinct racial groups with distinct characteristics were developed to support the notion that some ‘races’ (those of white, European origin) were innately superior to others (usually ‘non-white races’ of African or Asian origin).

Many writers in this field argue that ‘race’ is socially constructed, as part of a process in which individuals are assigned to particular ‘racial’ categories (Banton, 1977; UNESCO, 1980; Miles, 1982, 1989). Certain physical characteristics, such as skin colour, become markers of social difference, as part of a process of ‘racialisation’ in which the concept of ‘race’ is given specific social meaning. People assigned to a particular ‘racialised’ group are perceived to have specific characteristics: for example, black people may be deemed to be better at some sports than white people, but also not as intelligent. In fact a great deal of early scientific research on ‘race’ focused on trying to determine intelligence by examining the size of the brain in different ‘racialised’ groups (Huxley and Haddon, 1935; Jensen, 1969; Eysenck, 1971; Banton, 1977; Barkan, 1992). This research was inconclusive and no ‘racial’ differences were found.

However, there are some genetic differences between groups of people which seem to have a geographical origin. For example, some inherited disorders are more prevalent in certain areas of the world and in communities that have migrated (Weatherall, 2001). Thalassaemia is more prevalent in Greek-Cypriot communities, whereas cystic fibrosis is more prevalent in North European communities (Ward, 2001). Some writers (for example Jensen, 1969; Eysenck, 1971) argue that this demonstrates the reality of ‘racial differences’. However, others have argued that such ‘differences’ are largely insignificant, and that in fact there are more genetic differences within ‘racial groups’ than between them (Woodward, 1997). According to the sociologist and psychodynamic writer Michael Rustin:

More significant than any minor genetic differences is the way in which supposed ‘racial’ differences have been used to explain people’s behaviour and to place them in a hierarchy in society. To quote social policy writer Esther Saraga: