The social, economic, political, and genetic value of race and ethnicity in 2020

Abstract

Disparities across racial and ethnic groups are present for a range of health outcomes. In this opinion piece, we consider the origin of racial and ethnic groupings, a history that highlights the sociopolitical nature of these terms. Indeed, the terms race and ethnicity exist purely as social constructs and must not be used interchangeably with genetic ancestry. There is no scientific evidence that the groups we traditionally call "races/ethnicities" have distinct, unifying biological or genetic basis. Such a focus runs the risk of compounding equity gaps and perpetuating erroneous conclusions. That said, we suggest that the terms race and ethnicity continue to have purpose as lenses through which to quantify and then close racial and ethnic disparities. Understanding the root cause of such health disparities-namely, longstanding racism and ethnocentrism-could promote interventions and policies poised to equitably improve population health.

Keywords: Ethnicity; Genetic ancestry; Health disparity; Human origin; Race.

Fig. 1

The origin of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) and migration out of Africa. Fossil records, mitochondrial DNA analysis (mtDNA), Y chromosome, and nuclear genomic DNA shows that modern humans originated in Africa [1] and migrated out of African, then eventually to the rest of the world. Every mutation present in other parts of the world exist in Africa

Fig. 2

The use and relationship of racial, ethnic, and ancestral categories. Race is a social construct, ethnicity is a cultural construct often linked to community, religion, and language, and genetic ancestry is biological inheritance of DNA that can be traced through the genome. Human genetic diversity forms a continuum rather than discrete racial and ethnic clusters