Why not drop race as a term?

Abstract

Contents race as a scientific term was seriously flawed. Yee et al. have reinforced that con-Dole on Yee et al 40 elusion. Rushton on Yee et al 40 l propose, therefore, that applied and Jensen on Yee et al 41 scientific psychologists drop race because it Eisenmanon Yeeet al""ZZ!"Z""^42 is a hopelessly ambiguous and politicized Sun on Yee et al 43 descriptor of alleged human subspecies. Psy-Fish on Yee et al 44 chologists should retain race only in rela-Levin on Yee et al 45 tion to attributed group membership or stud-Fairchild et al. Reply""!Z"I!!^!"I^" 46 ies of attitudes. Thus racism is certainly of Day and Tappan on Sampson 47 interest when it refers to a popular belief Kuhlman on Sampson 48 that some group is superior, inferior, or dif-Blanch et al. on Sampson 49 ferent on some characteristic. Silverstein on Sampson 50 What are the practical consequences if ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ psychologists abandon race? For a serious inquiry that addresses, for example, individual differences on a particular variable (intelligence, athletic ability, personality, etc.) in relation to group membership, I rec-Why Not Drop Race ommend that investigators collect data about as a Term? a number of separate characteristics-gender, age, occupation, education, religion, Arthur A Dole parent education, parent occupation, income, Trenton MEgeneration in the United States, country of ancestral origin, and so on. However, in After they reviewed the recent literature designing categories for human populations regarding race, most of it published since the y should avoid skin color ( black ' red > 1970, Yee, Fairchild, Weizmann, and Wyatt y ellow ' white )> continental origin (African, (November 1993) called for a blue-ribbon Asian )> ^thropological designation (Cauinterdisciplinary commission to develop a casian )> or colonial hlstorv (Latino). In curframe of reference. As an undergraduate rent P ractice ( e -g-uscensus > these char " more than half a century ago, I encountered a cteristics are often combined in a multipleconsiderable confusion, disagreement, and choice format : but the V lack lo 8 ical consis " contradiction about race in introductory tenc y' md the y "«loose and leaky categocourses in psychology, sociology, anthro-ries -A PP lied to a sin 8 le individual in a pology, and biology. Even among promi-clinicaI situation, a racial term reveals little nent psychologists there was little unifor-or nothin 8-If a racial category is reported as mity. For example, Henry Garrett (1945), a g^P mean -variability may be overlooked the Columbia statistician, had close ties with aad overgeneralization encouraged. An inthe eugenics movement. Robert Yerkes tensive famil y hist0T V is far more P roduc -(1921), the specialist on primate behavior tive -After more than 70 vears of confusion, and a father of the Army Alpha, presented a blue-ribbon commission is hardly necesevidence about differences in intelligence sar y to advise psychologists to avoid popuby race. On the other hand, the research of lar rac i al categories in their research ...

The meaning of race in psychology and how to change it: A methodological perspective.

“…2. Avoid using racial categories in research designs without a clear conceptual reason for doing so (Dole, 1995;Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 1991). The rationale for this recommendation is that because racial categories encompass such a wide array of unspecified attributes, it is too tempting to "fall into the trap of 'explaining' [racial category] differences [on the dependent variable]" by means of racial categories instead of identifying the variables associated with racial categories (e.g., exposure to discrimination, in-group bias) that relate to or affect the dependent variables in research designs (Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 1991, pp.…”

“…Rationales offered in support of this recommendation include (a) improving psychological research designs and theories by shifting psychologists' focus away from group-level factors to “individualistic traits” (Yee, 1983, p. 21), (b) encouraging researchers to study race as a social construction rather than a biological entity (American Psychological Association, 2003), and (c) illuminating cultural phenomena underlying human behavior (Betancourt & López, 1993; Phinney, 1996). Avoid using racial categories in research designs without a clear conceptual reason for doing so (Dole, 1995; Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 1991). The rationale for this recommendation is that because racial categories encompass such a wide array of unspecified attributes, it is too tempting to “fall into the trap of ‘explaining’ [racial category] differences [on the dependent variable]” by means of racial categories instead of identifying the variables associated with racial categories (e.g., exposure to discrimination, in-group bias) that relate to or affect the dependent variables in research designs (Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 1991, pp.…”

African American Racial Identity and Sport

“…In this country there are some classi ed as African American that have more features common to Europeans than Africans. The study of the genetic and biological basis for race has been deemed fruitless and is composed of 'lose and leaky' categories that defy logic and are inherently inconsistent (Dole, 1995). According to LaVeist (1996), race is a social rather than biological factor that reveals a common socio-political history.…”

Is Race‐Thinking Biological or Social, and Does It Matter for Racism? An Exploratory Study

“…The ontological question is whether race is real; the normative question is whether we should do away with race‐thinking—more precisely, whether we should eliminate thoughts, policies, practices, research, and theory that use racial discourse. Both questions have been examined in a range of fields, from psychology (Dole 1995; Eisenman 1995; Helms, Jernigan, and Mascher 2005) to anthropology (Montagu 1964; Smedley and Smedley 2005) to biology (Blackburn 2000) to sociology (Omi and Winant 1994) to philosophy (e.g., Appiah 1996; Glasgow 2009; Outlaw 1996; Sundstrom 2002; Taylor 2000). These questions have also captured broader public attention.…”