Race has no scientific basis and is a social myth dating to UNESCO 1950.

Evidence

The thing about race is that, scientifically, there is no such thing. As far back as 1950, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released the conclusions of an international group of anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists that stated that the concept of race was not a scientific entity but a myth. Since then, one scientific group after another has issued similar conclusions. What we use to determine race is really nothing more than some haphazard physical characteristics, cultural histories, and social conventions that distinguish one group from another. But, for the sake of communication, we will continue to misuse the word, myself included, in order to discuss our social issues so everyone understands them. As far as Dolezal is concerned, technically, since there is no such thing as race, she’s merely selected a cultural preference of which cultural group she most identifies with. Who can blame her? Anyone who listens to the Isaac Hayes song, “Shaft,” wants to be black-for a little while anyway (#who’sthecatwhowon’tcopout). — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 98

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supplies the reader’s racecraft core: race-as-myth that must nonetheless be used for communication — the crux for her claimed contrast with Aziz. — connects to: Racial identity is a dynamic bricolage, not a fixed biological given.; If race is social, race is an amalgam of practices, not proxies like phenotype — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 89; Race is a political and social construct, not a scientific category (+12 more)
• QUESTION: The claim to drag Dolezal along the same racecraft logic — that if race is myth, Dolezal’s transracialism is just cultural preference — is provocative and underhandled; worth chasing how she squares it with not trivializing anti-Black racism.

Broader Connections

• Race is a political and social construct, not a scientific category #corroborates (0.95)
• Race has no biological reality but is a potent social force #corroborates (0.92)
• Race and ethnicity are socially constructed rather than natural categories. #corroborates (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 104
• Races are produced by racism, not by biology #corroborates (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 76
• Biological race and craniology do not constitute historical unity among humans. #corroborates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1269
• Race masks real socioeconomic relationships and has no analytic validity #corroborates (0.85)
• Racism rests on pseudo-scientific race accounts that justify inequality. #corroborates (0.85) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 115
• Race is a modern concept barely existing before the Enlightenment #expands (0.80)
• Race is a modern condition masquerading as ancient #expands (0.80)
• Race is a modern construct disguised as ancient, not a premodern condition #expands (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 61
• Postwar UNESCO race statements legitimized racial mixture as national ideology #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1167