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The current debate over racial inequalities in health is arguably the most important venue for advancing both scientific and public understanding of race, racism, and human biological variation. In the United States and elsewhere, there are well-defined inequalities between racially defined groups for a range of biological outcomes--cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, certain cancers, low birth weight, preterm delivery, and others. Among biomedical researchers, these patterns are often taken as evidence of fundamental genetic differences between alleged races. However, a growing body of evidence establishes the primacy of social inequalities in the origin and persistence of racial health disparities. Here, I summarize this evidence and argue that the debate over racial inequalities in health presents an opportunity to refine the critique of race in three ways: 1) to reiterate why the race concept is inconsistent with patterns of global human genetic diversity; 2) to refocus attention on the complex, environmental influences on human biology at multiple levels of analysis and across the lifecourse; and 3) to revise the claim that race is a cultural construct and expand research on the sociocultural reality of race and racism. Drawing on recent developments in neighboring disciplines, I present a model for explaining how racial inequality becomes embodied--literally--in the biological well-being of racialized groups and individuals. This model requires a shift in the way we articulate the critique of race as bad biology. KEY WORDS race; genetics; human biological variation; health; racism

Race is an interminable subject of controversy. Nevertheless, people do differ and once were classified on the basis of skin color. With the advent of genetic markers, and more recently DNA differences, with myriad intragroup variability, many geneticists view race as an anachronism. Unfortunately, prejudice permeates human classifications. In the United States, a black mother cannot have a white baby, but a white mother can have a black baby. An African American could be in one of 40 categories in Brazil; in South Africa be classified black, coloured, or white; but in the Middle East be perceived as a member of a local population. In the early 1970s, African Americans were selectively tested for sickle hemoglobin and discriminated against in sports, employment, and health and life insurance as a result of misinformation distributed by the federal government and African American community programs. The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (supported by the U.S. Department of Energy) was recently sued for selectively testing African Americans for sickle hemoglobin and syphilis.

The concept of group rights in population-genomic research should not be accepted because it conveys the erroneous idea that there is a genetic basis for social groups. Researchers in population-genomics should seek templates other than identified social groups. However, individual participants in such research may want to consider the interests of such identified social groups as part of their informed decision-making.

Physical anthropology originated as a discipline committed to the study of human variation. The foundation of these early comparative studies was entrenched in racial typology. Shared morphological features were considered indisputable evidence of a shared racial history. Cranial and postcranial features that distinguished racial groups became, by definition, racial traits. Nearly a half century ago, S. L. Washburn heralded the 'new physical anthropology,' which eschewed classification and description and for a more dynamic investigation of process and hypothesis testing. The impact of population genetics on physical anthropology in the 1950s suggested that the changes in the paradigm were imminent. In 1972, Lasker disappointedly noted that the discipline had remained essentially descriptive and had not moved beyond the rhetoric of the 'new physical anthropology.' While strides have been made in the last three decades, typological analysis remains a consistent feature of genetic studies. Typology is most apparent in genetic studies that attempt to establish the history of human population migration. Whether using genetic traits or mtDNA, typology is embedded in both the methodology and interpretation. Even when researchers specifically reject racial classifications, they present their analysis in terms that are typological and frequently racial. For example, while Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues' The History and Geography of the Human Genes rejects the racial model, their interpretation still reflects earlier racial classifications.

Potential mates analysis is used to determine some of the social and demographic characteristics that influence mate choice in a small island population. Potential mate pools are defined for males in this population; characteristics such as population size and composition with respect to consanguinity are specified. Determinants of mate choice are examined in light of mate availability and potential mate pool characteristics for endogamous matters, exogamous maters, nonmaters, and males of various occupations. Random kinship is assessed from potential mate pools and compared to kinship between actual mates. The island community approximated a random mating population from 1700 to 1900 with some evidence for consanguinity avoidance intensifying in the period 1900-1950. Despite the island's small population size, kinship coefficients between random mates and actual mates are not high because of relatively high immigration rates. Having considered the contributions of various factors that influence mate choice, the significance of the island mating structure for genetic variation and the distributions of certain genetic disorders is discussed.