Racism: A Product of Culture, Not Science

Mike Howie

Racism has been present throughout human history, causing pain and hardship for countless people. Lately, social justice movements like Black Lives Matter have surged in response to violence perpetrated against Black people and the mistreatment of all people of color. Protests calling for an end to such violence — and the institutionalized and systemic racism that enables it — have swept not only the United States but the world.

Science stands on the side of these protesters — biology and genetics show that all humans, regardless of skin tone, are just that: human.¹ It is especially important, then, to examine how some have manipulated science, regrettably, to try to legitimize racism.

One Human Race

Since the early days of science, people have attempted to scientifically justify racist beliefs. One such person was Carl Linnaeus, who invented the genus and species system of biological taxonomy we use today.

In his twelfth edition of Systema Naturae², published in 1767, Linnaeus labeled five “varieties” of human species: Americanus, Europeanus, Asiaticus, Afer or Africanus, and the mythological Monstrosus. He assigned defining traits to each of these, some based on physical appearance —— in his words, “red,” “white,” “yellow,” and “black” — and others based on his perception of culture and way of life. To Europeanus, the group he personally identified with, he assigned flattering traits: “gentle, acute, inventive; covered with close vestments; and governed by laws.” To the other groups, with which he did not identify, he assigned decidedly less flattering traits. Africanus, Linnaeus asserted, were “crafty, sly, lazy, cunning, lustful, careless” and “governed by caprice.” Asiaticus he described as “severe, haughty, greedy; covered with loose clothing; and ruled by opinions.” And Americanus he described as “stubborn, zealous, free; painting himself with red lines.”

None of these traits, positive or negative, has anything to do with the biology of human variation — they are not inherent in any of us. Linnaeus was neither the first nor the last to assert a “scientific” basis for such racist views, and hundreds of years of influence has unfortunately cemented ideas like these in the minds of many.

While skin color may be one of the easiest differences to spot among our fellow humans, it does not accurately reflect the genetics at play within us — far from it. Skin color evolved over generations, influenced by everything from the amount of sunlight where we live to the availability of food and the spread of disease.¹ In fact, shared skin color isn’t necessarily a sign of genetic similarity.

Even direct descent does not guarantee genetic similarity. Because sperm and eggs carry only half of a person’s DNA, some genetic information is lost every generation. After 11 generations, only half the DNA remains. That means we’re genetically unrelated to our ancestors from as little as 300 years ago.¹ But if you look at the whole forest of human family trees, you’ll see that we are all deeply intertwined — more genetically similar than we are different.

All human life can be traced back to Africa. Fossils indicate that modern human features began to show up on the continent about 300,000 years ago. Those early humans spread out over the African continent until a few thousand migrated about 60,000 years ago — these are the ancestors of all modern non-Africans. In the time since, humans have meandered all over the world, settling in different areas and evolving along the way. Those thousands of years of evolution created the brilliant human diversity we now know, but the greatest diversity arose between humans who stayed in Africa. Today, there’s more genetic diversity in Africa than in the rest of the world combined.³

Race, as we think of it today, is not a scientific classification. It has no basis in the genetics or biology that guide human variation. Rather, it is a cultural classification that was created and can be altered by individuals’ subjective perceptions of the world.¹

The Effects of Racism

Racism can take many forms. It can be as overt as excluding or harassing people because of the color of their skin or as subtle as making assumptions about a person’s interests. It can be unconscious, misleading us to assign unflattering traits to people of color without even thinking about it. Even when racist beliefs seem, on the surface, to be flattering — like assumptions about higher intelligence levels or enhanced athletic abilities — they are still ultimately harmful.

The effects of racism can take even more forms. In the United States, police target Black people more frequently and with greater force.⁴ In Australia, a 2007 study conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission suggested that people from Aboriginal and other ethnic groups avoided organized sports for fear of racial vilification.⁵In Europe, asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa are regularly met with racism, turned away, or, in Britain, indefinitely detained.⁶Around the world, people have lashed out at those of Asiatic heritage in response to COVID-19.⁷ Point to any spot on the globe, and there you will likely find racism.

Racism can also lead to a variety of health issues. In a 2019 Perspectives on Psychological Science article⁸, researchers Antoinette M. Landor and Shardé McNeil Smith posited that racially motivated assaults may result in traumatic stress reactions, low self-esteem, hypertension, and other detrimental effects. Similarly, a 2016 study by psychological scientist Jordan Leitner published in Psychological Science⁹ found that Black residents in communities with high levels of overt racism are more likely to die from heart disease and other circulatory diseases.

Add to these outcomes the institutionalized racism and bias widely found in hiring practices, housing, healthcare, education, restaurants, publishing, entertainment, and more and you see that racism negatively affects every aspect of life for people of color.

The truth is that we are all one people. Regardless of color or nationality or way of life, we are all one human race. And that is a scientific fact.