Race has no scientific basis and is purely social convention
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. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 98
Categorization
- DEFINE: States the scientific consensus premise on which the entire racecraft-Islam-as-race argument rests.
- XREF: The ‘race is a myth’ premise directly parallels the Fields sisters’ racecraft thesis - this is the book’s foundation Choudhury builds her legal argument on. — connects to: Race masks real socioeconomic relationships and has no analytic validity; Race is a political and social construct, not a scientific category; Race has no biological reality but is a potent social force (+12 more)
- QUESTION: Key comparison with Aziz: does Aziz trace historical racialization while Choudhury grounds it in racecraft’s anti-biological definition?
Broader Connections
- Race has no scientific basis and is a social myth dating to UNESCO 1950.
#corroborates(0.98) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 98 - Race is a political and social construct, not a scientific category
#corroborates(0.97) - Race has no biological reality but is a potent social force
#expands(0.95) - Race is social construction with real material consequences, not biology
#expands(0.95) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 124 - Race being social means it consists of identity practices, not biology.
#corroborates(0.93) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 89 - Race is a political category disguised as a biological one
#corroborates(0.92) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1179 - Race masks real socioeconomic relationships and has no analytic validity
#corroborates(0.90) - Race has no genetic basis yet produces real material consequences.
#expands(0.90) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1112 - Races are produced by racism, not by biology
#expands(0.88) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 76 - Ancient notions of race as biology do not match reality
#corroborates(0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 901 - Race is an unstable, fully-fledged social fact like class or gender
#corroborates(0.85) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 140 - Biological race and craniology do not constitute historical unity among humans.
#corroborates(0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1269 - Race is a social reduction to sheer force, not a natural trait
#corroborates(0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 124 - Phenotype was never the whole basis of the race concept
#qualifies(0.75) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 165 - No one can stand outside race because society and identities are constituted by it
#qualifies(0.72) — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 140