• DOI:10.1080/00380237.2007.10571319
• Corpus ID: 145012814

“Everyone Knows It's a Social Construct”: Contemporary Science and the Nature of Race

@article{Morning2007EveryoneKI,
  title={“Everyone Knows It's a Social Construct”: Contemporary Science and the Nature of Race},
  author={Ann Morning},
  journal={Sociological Focus},
  year={2007},
  volume={40},
  pages={436 - 454}
}

• A. Morning
• Published 1 November 2007
• Sociology
• Sociological Focus

Abstract Sociological literature frequently claims that scientists across the disciplinary spectrum have arrived at the common conclusion that race is socially constructed, not biologically anchored. I investigate contemporary scientific thinking about race by interviewing more than 40 biologists and anthropologists at four northeastern universities. Contrary to sociologists' expectations, racial constructionism is revealed to be a minority viewpoint. Moreover, this research shows that the usual “constructionist” versus “essentialist” dichotomy a blunt tool for characterizing the debate about race; a third platform—“antiessentialism”—must be taken into account. Recognizing antiessentialist discourse calls for a reevaluation of prior research that emphasizes socioeconomic status and professional affiliation as influences on interviewees' concepts of race; this project demonstrates that such tectors do little to distinguish essentialist from antiessentialist veiwpoints.