Race as Biological

The view of race has seen a remarkable shift from a biologically based construct to a socially based one. Scholars Omi and Winant state in their article Racial Formation in the United States, “the concept of race has defied biological definition”. Despite this, in a previous historical era a person’s racial identity was based on the country from which he/she or his/her ancestors originated. Mixed race people were classified separately. Eventually, once the civil rights movement took hold, and there was more immigration into the United States from different regions, there was a shift. People started to be able to define themselves. There were more options and more diversity among people. The concept of race became social; about how a person views his or her self, not just whether they look black or white. Now however, with the recent advances in science, there has been a partial pendulum swing in the other direction. Certain genetic diseases are being sequenced that have roots in certain global populations that can be traced to a specific race. In another article from 2012 entitled Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century, Omi and Winant cite Neil Risch when they assert “genetic differences have arisen among people from different continents…recognition of race…is important for understanding genetic susceptibility to certain diseases and receptivity to medical interventions such as drug treatments.” This trend in race classification can become problematic if socioeconomics is factored into the equation, as has started to happen in recent years. Those that can afford medical treatment are at an advantage, ever increasing, until those who can’t are once again deprived of influence.