A Natural Kind, and Why Race is a Social Construct.
November 20, 2022
A natural kind is a grouping that exists in the world completely independent from the interest and actions of humans. That is to say, it is a categorization that truly exists, not one that was artificially developed. The distinction between life and death, for example, is a natural kind. Unlike race, this is a concept that clearly exists without human influence. This does not mean that race is not real or does not matter, only that there is no biological basis for racial categorization. It is a purely psychological concept. An equivocation can be seen in the legal system. The law certainly exists, however, nothing in nature defines it, instead, they are rules that we, as humans, have decided reflect justice and morality- whether we are right, well… that's another discussion. While it is true that humans roughly cluster into geographical areas, and that our culture and physical differences seem to separate us, genetic variation among humans is nearly the same across the whole human population. Additionally, even within a certain region genetic diversity is so large that no uniform identity biologically exists. In fact the largest genetic variation among humans is found between two separate black (where black is a racial categorization) groups.
Race is really just a perception of another. The main argument for race not being a social construct is the clear differences in skin color we see, however, this fails as well. Skin color is simply a few genes in our entire genetic makeup, that we, as humans, arbitrarily selected to represent a method of categorization. Take the example of apples. Two red apples may be more genetically different than a red and a green apple. To us humans, this does not matter, we instead artificially categorize these apples based on the most phenotypic variation: their color. This categorization, just like race, is real but does not exist in nature; it is not a natural kind. It only exists with human influence, and thus is socially constructed.
This is a concept that is nearly universally accepted, however, the real question is this: so what? Ok race is a social construct, congrats everyone, we figured it out, give yourselves a pat on the back, but what does this actually do for the dissolution of racial prejudice we see around us? The answer, sadly, is not too much. Even if race isn't a natural kind, there is no denying it exists. And to that point, there is no denying that certain races have it easier. The median* wealth of a white family today is $189,100. A black family, $24,100. A staggering difference. Our culture, language, and yes skin color, all factor into our immediate preconceptions of another, and these perceptions lead to perpetual loops of inequality. Another interesting point in this regard is that when it comes to an identity we favor underprivileged races. If you are 50% black and 50% white, most likely you will say you are black. If you are one-third white, one-third black, and one-third Asian, yes you have a cool family tree, but more importantly, you probably do not say you are white. This is the tricky thing about social constructs, they become almost innate. History pounds a heretical structure into our minds over centuries of slavery and legal and social segregation. Getting rid of social constructs takes more than formal desegregation. It takes time- generations and generations of time until true social integration of all races is achieved.
Source: The Federal Reserve. The Median is more appropriate than the mean because of the heavily skewed distribution