The Rise and Fall of the Concept of Race

Charles Hirschman, University of Washington

Physical, linguistic, and cultural diversity have been salient features of human societies throughout history, but the origins of “race” as a scientific concept is a modern phenomenon created in nineteenth century Europe as Darwinian thought was (mis) applied to account for differences in human societies. Although modern science has discredited race as a meaningful biological concept, race has remained as an important social category because of historical patterns of interpersonal and institutional discrimination. The problem of consistent and reliable reporting of race, either as an identity or as an observed trait, means that the notion of race as a set of mutually exclusive categories is disappearing. As a social science term, race will gradually be come similar to the amorphous concept of ethnicity.