One Human Race—But Racism Is Real

Race is not a biological division of humanity into separate and unequal species. There is one human race.

But that truth does not resolve the problem. Race is also a social, legal, and political construction. Throughout American history, governments have assigned rights, burdens, privileges, and disabilities according to racial classifications.

Race helped determine who could be enslaved, who could become a citizen, who could vote, who could own property, who could marry, who could attend a particular school, who could live in a particular neighborhood, and who could enter the country. Race shaped access to employment, medical care, public accommodations, government benefits, and legal protection.

Race does not have to be biologically real to have real consequences. American law made race matter. It used race to distribute freedom, citizenship, property, political power, education, housing, and legal protection. The law helped create the racial categories whose continuing consequences the government now proposes to stop measuring through the census.

“There is only one human race” answers a biological question. It does not answer the social, legal, or public-health question of whether people assigned to different racial groups receive different treatment and experience different outcomes.

We do not collect racial data to prove that biological races exist. We collect it to document what racism does.