Genetics and Racial Minorities in the U nited S tates

Abstract

This entry surveys constructions of “race” and racial minorities in natural and social science and more recently in genetics. It examines how “race” comes into current biomedical research even though the category has been contested and shown to lack a biological evolutionary basis. The focus of this analysis is the United States, where race/ethnicity standards are regularly employed as demographic categories, and where the bulk of bioscientific research employing such categories happens.