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Essay on Race, Ethnicity and Equality
Historically, the rise of the race concept in society was dependent on its undeserved status as an objective scientific and biological category and was associated with strategies of exclusion and political domination. Mainstream science played a key role in the rise of the race concept but has since largely abandoned it in face of evidence from population genetics. Ethnicity is a complex social variable, with cultural and political dimensions, but no biological dimension. Adopting a public health perspective on ethnicity which recognizes the fluid and contested nature of this socio-political variable, whilst seeking to make explicit its relevance and definitional limits, allows us to dispense with the race concept altogether, since race has no additional explanatory or strategic value above that of ethnicity.
The race term is still commonly used, however, in general conversation and in the media. The persistence of the race concept and of racism is difficult to explain but may be related historically to the politics of nationalism, and in modern times to the politics of difference and identity that characterize the modern multicultural nation-state. Abandoning the terminology of race leaves racism without any logical basis, and may contribute to a process of social change, although it cannot be expected to eliminate the phenomenon of racism.
Race, ethnicity and culture are issues of enduring importance not only in the social sciences, but also in public health. Public health is the organized effort of society to protect, promote and restore the public's health and equity of access to services and equality of health outcomes are key concerns. Race' is a word used frequently in general conversation and in the media. It is enshrined in legislation, such as the Racial Discrimination Act' and appears in the titles of academic journals such as `Race and Class'......
