The Genomic Challenge to the Social Construction of Race.

Recent advances in genetic research call into question the theory that human races are socially constructed rather than biologically real. In this paper, we outline the possibility of synthesizing the new advances in genetic research with social constructionist accounts of race. We begin by identifying the critical questions in this controversy through a selective review of its major statements. Second, we construct the theoretical range of biological realities that might be empirically true for human races. Third, we evaluate these possible realities by reinterpreting a selection of major research publications in the sociology of race/ethnicity. We conclude by distilling these evaluations into the range of implications that a biological reality for race might have for theories of its social reality and suggest future directions for scholarship relevant for reformulating the social construction of race. In brief, we argue that the new advances in genetics call for a significant amendment to social constructionism that grants some biological reality to race and identifies the kind of racial phenomena for which biology might play a greater explanatory role than generally assumed in modern social theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]