Race is a social construct

2025-04-21 · genetics

Adam Rutherford writing about some results of Human Genome Project:

[Human Genome Project] provided definitive evidence that racial groupings have no biological basis. In fact, there is more genetic variation within racial groups than between them. Race, it showed, is a social construct.

This obviously goes against talking points by white supremesists:

Trump frequently speaks about aspects of genetics to make political points. One view that he has expressed repeatedly is that some people, and predictably himself, are genetically superior. “You have good genes, you know that, right?” he said in September 2020 to a rally in Minnesota – a state that is more than 80% white. “You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe? You have good genes in Minnesota.”

Translation: “Many [white] Europeans settled in Minnesota just before 1900.”

It’s hard for someone who studies genes – and the strange and sometimes troubling history of genetics – to understand even what might constitute a “bad” or “good” gene.

Adam Rutherford is a lecturer in genetics at University College London.