How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality

by Adam Rutherford

Of all the attempts over the centuries to place humans in distinct races, none succeeds. Genetics refuses to comply with these artificial and superficial categories. Skin colour, while being the most obvious difference between people, is a very bad proxy for the total amount of similarity or difference between individuals and between populations. Racial differences are skin deep.

We can see the genes that allow milk drinking in white Europeans and a few clusters of dairy farming pastoralists dotted around the world.

we were diverse in our skin colour before we were our own species.

When all you’ve ever known is privilege, equality feels like oppression.

Populations around the world do have genetic signatures that reveal the current and to some extent the historical structure of the people who bear them. But these correspond poorly with any concept of race, or even country.

The dominance of skin colour as a racial classifier is based on historical pseudoscience primarily invented during the years of European empire-building and colonial expansion.

Race is a social construct. This does not mean it is invalid or unimportant. Humans are social animals, and the way we perceive each other is of paramount importance. But it does mean that the colloquial use of race is a taxonomy that is not supported by our understanding of fundamental biology, meaning genetics and evolution.

Race is real because we perceive it. Racism is real because we enact it. Neither race nor racism has foundations in science. It is our duty to contest the warping of scientific research, especially if it is being used to justify prejudice. If you are a racist, then you are asking for a fight. But science is my ally, not yours, and your fight is not just with me, but with reality.