A Call to Adopt the Scientific Definition of Race and to Disavow the Old Discredited Definition of Race — One of the Biggest Lies Foisted on Humanity
As part of the quest to consign injustice – in particular, racism – to history, Say Something* calls on the global community to adopt the current scientific definition of race as a fundamental step in dismantling racism and creating a just world for all human beings.
According to the American Society of Human Genetics, the largest professional organization of scientists in the field,
“The science of genetics demonstrates that humans cannot be divided into biologically distinct subcategories.”
In 2000, the Human Genome Project confirmed that the genomes found around the globe are 99.9 percent identical in every human being irrespective of phenotypes such as skin color. And in 2018, Scientific American stated that there is a “broad scientific consensus that when it comes to genes, there is just as much diversity within racial and ethnic groups as there is across them.” In other words, the concept of race has no genetic or scientific basis.
We affirm that race science, race ideology, and racial essentialism perpetuate a social hierarchy with whites at the top and blacks at the bottom – the basis of many of the atrocities of the past few centuries. This belief system, unfortunately, is alive and well. Racial distinctions continue to impact legal, political, economic, civil, social, and cultural spaces and perpetuate racism, as well as a plethora of other harms.
We recognize that race is a ubiquitous social construct and social convention around the world. We believe that continuing to propagate a discredited definition of race, however popular, only fuels racist beliefs and perpetuates unjust outcomes in science, law, politics, academics, health, and other aspects of life.
We thus disavow the scientifically-discredited traditional concept of race which supports the idea that humanity can be categorized into different categories of humans as biologically separate and distinct according to phenotype — observable physical differences — and ranked according to a value hierarchy primarily based on skin pigmentation.
Join us in adopting the current scientific definition of race as a fundamental step in abolishing racism, changing the conversation, transforming minds, and creating a just world for all human beings.
CHANGE THE CONVERSATION
Racism continues to be a scourge on humanity. Around the world, racists (white supremacists) and “anti-racists” are becoming more visible and powerful, even occupying top positions of government, and using that power to perpetuate racial classifications and racism.
On one end of the political spectrum is the “anti-racist” identitarian coalition of the woke. They foster division by positioning humanity in opposing and irreconcilable sides of oppressor and oppressed, i.e., whites versus blacks (sometimes other people of “color”), white privilege versus black victimhood. The main proponent of anti-racism, Ibram X. Kendi, advances the argument that racial discrimination “is the sole cause of racial disparities in this country and in the world at large.” And as he has stated, “When I see racial disparities, I see racism.” Other anti-racists argue that whites are inherently and irredeemably racist and are the beneficiaries of white privilege. In keeping with the legacy of Stokely Carmichael, the father of Black Power, who said, “We must fill ourselves with hate for all white things,” some anti-racists, like Journalist Sarah Jeong (with her tweet #cancelwhitepeople) called for the cancelation of white people and Professor Brittney Cooper called for taking them out with her colorful statement, “…we got to take these mother fuckers out.”
On the other end of the political spectrum is the white nationalist conservative right (in the USA, this consists of the Republican Party, right-wing think tanks, media outlets, law firms, etc.). They foster division by advancing white supremacy, “great replacement” theory, fear of white genocide through immigration, race science, eugenics, and anti-CRT (Critical Race Theory) legislation. Two popular proponents of racism are Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly.
Common to both sides is the belief that race is a scientifically valid concept, a concept that continues to racialize society, stoke fear and hatred, and perpetuate the race war.
The current conversation about race is divisive and counterproductive. In order to change the conversation, we need to disavow the inherently divisive and scientifically discredited antiquated definition of race. We propose that the term “race” be abandoned and that in its place, “ancestry” or “ethnic group”/“ethnicity,” the terms that scientists use to describe human diversity, be used. “Ancestry” reflects the fact that human variations do have a connection to the geographical origins of our ancestors. Unlike the term “race,” “ancestry” focuses on understanding how a person’s history unfolded, not how they fit into one category and not another. “Ethnicity” and “ethnic group” evoke social characteristics such as history, language, beliefs, and customs. The terms African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American, European American/White, Latino/Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander can continue to be used, but explicitly as ethnic groups, thus reflecting geographic origin and ancestry instead of “races” which intrinsically connote biological differences. Using “ethnic group” or “ethnicity” in place of “race” has been the standard practice in Europe following the end of World War II.
In addition, when referring to race as a hierarchical system with whites at the top and blacks at the bottom, we recommend using the word “race” in quotations to denote awareness that this concept of race is not supported by science. We are not seeking to engage in revisionist history or sanitize it of the atrocities against humanity in the name of race.
Although the examples above speak to the United States, the radicalization of humanity has spread around the world. We believe that the current narratives about race on both sides of the political spectrum are in direct opposition to humanism, universalism, and individualism and threaten to divide humanity even more – a step in the wrong direction.
We are seeking to change the conversation around race by using the current scientific definition so it’s uniform and consistent around the world.
THE CHALLENGE
We challenge the global community, including public institutions, governmental institutions, organizations, businesses, and sports clubs, and the decent majority (the vast majority of people – irrespective of the color of their skin – who want to live together, want to improve the quality of our lives, and want justice for all human beings) to start using “ancestry” or “ethnic group”/“ethnicity” instead of “race.”
An example of this done right is The Equality and Discrimination Act of Norway which departed from The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination which prohibits discrimination based on race, skin color, descent or national or ethnic origin. The convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965 and entered into force in January 1969.
Norway ratified the convention on 6 August 1970 without reservation. The convention is incorporated into Norwegian law through the Equality and Discrimination Act. The state’s implementation of the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination is monitored by the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination, which consists of independent experts. Norway dropped “race” as a descriptor. Please see below.
The Equality and Discrimination Act
The Equality and Discrimination Act entered into force on 1 January 2018. The Act prohibits direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of, among other things, ethnicity (including national origin, descent, skin colour, language), religion and outlook on life. The purpose of the Act is to promote equality, ensure equal opportunities and rights, and to prevent discrimination. The law applies to all areas of society but is not enforced in family life and other personal relationships.
TRANSFORM MINDS
As stated above, the idea that race is real is ubiquitous around the world. Each side of the political spectrum perpetuates racist ideology to dehumanize the “other.”
In order to transform minds, we propose that instead of continuing to focus on our perceived differences, we focus on our scientifically based sameness.
Categorizing human beings according to distinct phenotypes and highlighting differences reinforces a racialized worldview. The idea of biologically ranked subdivisions of the human species ranked according to phenotypical differences triggers in-group loyalty and intergroup competition. In-group bias causes us to favor people who look like us and to disfavor – and fear – people who don’t look like us. People in the in-group see themselves as being in constant threat from the out-group and consequently are under constant stress, and people in the out-group perceive themselves as being excluded from the in-group, and also are under constant stress. This places both the perpetrator and the target of racism at risk of a multitude of health problems to the degree that Dr. Larry Sherman, Professor of Neuroscience at the Oregon Health & Science University, considers it a public health problem.
The “us” versus “them” dynamic has been manipulated in the media by both sides of the political spectrum to perpetuate the fear response. In Birth of a Nation, a 1915 American silent epic drama film, for example, “blacks” are portrayed as violent savages looking for “white” women to rape. Today, films continue to portray “blacks” as dangerous, lazy, and ignorant – the same attributes that were prescribed to “blacks” by scientific racism. Currently, in political discourse, leaders around the world have referred to immigrants with references to infestation, “cockroaches to be eliminated,” and rats. “Whites,” on the other hand, are depicted as saviors and agents of civilization. On the other side, blacks are portrayed as innocent victims and whites as the conscious purveyors of evil and the perpetrators of internalized racism. An example of this is the film, Get Out. Both sides foster the “us” versus “them” mentality.
Psychologist Albert Bandura states that dehumanization (of the “other”) is a form of moral disengagement that allows people to abandon normal human sympathies toward oppressed minorities. Linking immigration to crime also activates a fear of newcomers which triggers support for politicians promising to protect the native population. Keeping out-group prejudice alive is harmful to both the racist and the target of racism. As mentioned above, both sides experience stress and have high levels of cortisol which exacerbate the top causes of death.
Fortunately, fear conditioning can be reversed. Studies show that introducing even a little familiarity about the subject rewires the brain, so we do not see people who are different as a threat.
We believe that popularizing the scientific fact that we, human beings, are 99.9 percent the same – and ceasing to classify ourselves as inherently different – will contribute to the familiarity effect and to minimizing the fear response. As a global, diverse society, we are in desperate need of rewiring.
Changing the terminology and language can go a long way. As cognitive scientist George Lakoff has shown, even as a social construct, simply using the word “race,” even when criticizing racism, reinforces the false belief that human beings belong to fundamentally different groups. That’s because the more a word is used, the more that certain brain circuits are activated and the stronger that metaphor becomes.
In sum, the scientifically discredited definition of race has no place in today’s increasingly pluralist, interdependent, interconnected, and interrelated world.
CREATE A JUST WORLD FOR ALL HUMAN BEINGS
Historically, “race” has been weaponized by those in power to rob people of human rights and to further their political and economic standing. Currently, “race” is being weaponized by the anti-racist coalition to vilify white people and to correct education, income, and other disparities.
For the last few centuries, who was considered white and who wasn’t changed depending on the political climate and social and economic expediencies of the time? At one point, all “non-white” people were considered “black.” At another point, Italians, Irish, and Polish, who now are considered “white,” were considered “non-white.” The term “Asian,” as defined by the USA Census Bureau, only includes people originating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. People born elsewhere on the Asian continent—such as Turkey, Afghanistan, or Iran—are not considered “Asian” on the USA census.
What has remained consistent is the concept of “race” as the basis for discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, such as Jim Crow laws, Black laws, redlining, the Trail of Tears, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment camps, etc.
“Race” now is being used to right social and economic gaps. Identitarians and anti-racists call for programs to combat unequal outcomes like Affirmative Action, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, statistical parity initiatives, etc. In the name of diversity, they call that people of “color” have a seat at the table in the name of statistical parity. Allocating desirable positions on the basis of “race” rather than merit is not the answer.
Both of these approaches are flawed and fuel dangerous ideologies and behavior.
As a step toward eradicating racism, we call for the phasing out of the word “race” in all discourse. We believe that continuing to use the term “race,” which evokes innate biological differences, reinforces racism. Disavowing the discredited notion of “race” is an important step in the fight against racism. We support ending racism at the individual and structural and systemic levels and creating a just world for all human beings — one in which we human beings are celebrated for the 99.9 percent that we have in common all the while honoring what is unique about each of us.
We commend the scientific community for being a leader in phasing out the use of “race” and racial distinctions. We urge the global community and the decent majority to follow suit.
“Say Something” is an international non-profit organization based in Oslo, Norway, dedicated to consigning injustice to history by transforming minds, changing the conversation, and creating a just world for all human beings through science via art exhibitions, documentaries, salons, and social media campaigns.
Authored by:
Yolanda Quiroz Soto, JD
Roy Hansen