On Racial Speculation and Racial Science

Abstract

In June 2012, Sociological Theory published “The Genomic Challenge to the Social Construction of Race” by Jiannbin Lee Shiao, Thomas Bode, Amber Beyer, and Daniel Selvig. The article argues that “recent research on the human genome challenges the basic assumption that human races have no biological basis” (p. 68). The authors advance a “bounded nature” account of race to suggest that “biological ancestry” might lead to “different frequencies of personality and cognitive characteristics” by race (p. 83). In this response I investigate three propositions central to Shiao et al.’s argument: (1) the contention that contemporary genetics research has documented a biological basis to race, (2) the assertion that such research warrants inquiries into the way “biological ancestry” might “contribute to average group differences” by race (p. 83), and (3) the claim that there is no “essential characteristic” of their findings that might be complicit with biological racism.