These days, many of us take some form of social constructionism about race for granted. And why shouldn’t we? But the victory over racial myths wasn’t easy. It was one of the most important wins of activist waves of the 1960s-70s. It overturned the reign of ‘racial science.’ And it dislodged, for many people, the idea that people are born as members of some natural category called ‘race.’

I find that those old racial myths are making a comeback. And on multiple political fronts. Including ‘left-wing’ fronts. Let’s talk about that.

Race is real. But it’s real in an entirely social and historical sense. It’s not encoded in genes. Rather, race, as a category, played a historical role. In late feudal and early capitalist societies, it justified the forced labor regime of white plantation owners and enslavement of black people. Those decisions still impact the world. The racial science and racial myths supporting those decisions are bullshit.

So far, so good. Now let’s get on to the return of racial myths. As I wrote above, I think they’re returning in a big way. On the right, surely, but also on the ‘left’, through identitarian tendencies.

I’ll examine a few of these racial myths in this post. This won’t be a complete list.

Right-Wing Racial Myths

I’m setting out four racial myths I’d like to focus on. I’ll associate two racial myths with right-wing camps and two with more liberal camps.

Myth: White Biological or Cultural Supremacism

Fact: White People Aren’t Superior

The fact that we even have to return to this one doesn’t say anything great about humanity. Historically, scientists used research on things like cranium size and IQ to justify the baloney claim that white people are superior. That’s pretty outré these days, even in racist circles.

These days it’s all about so-called cultural superiority. People like Steve King assert the superiority of ‘Western Civilization’ or whatever other code language they have in mind. It’s clear King uses this as code for ‘white people.’

I’m not going to spend much time on this one. Other than to send a message to knock this shit off. White people aren’t superior. ‘White’ began as a label for people who aren’t victims of racial subordination. It’s a bit more than that now. Check out the field of whiteness studies. But that’s its common thread.

Myth: Most Whites are Part Native American, or My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother was a “Full-Blooded Indian Princess”

Fact: Elizabeth Warren Isn’t Native American

Apparently Elizabeth Warren once claimed to be Native American. Since then, she learned her lesson. And so, she retreated to the position that she has ‘Native American ancestry.’ Many Native American groups see this as a distinction without a difference, because the basic error remains the same.

Warren took a DNA test. It purported to show she had a Native American ancestor 6-10 generations ago. Good for her. Warren used this for a bit of anti-Trump political theater, which backfired after criticism from tribal leaders.

What’s going on here? First, European colonizers invented the concept of ‘race.’ They did it while they were colonizing and settling North America. One goal, as noted above, was to justify the enslavement of Africans. But another important goal was to justify genocide against Native Americans and theft of Native American land. The consequences of this genocide and theft continue today.

Warren faces none of these negative consequences, and she doesn’t share any experience of racism. Nor is she a particularly vocal advocate for Native Americans. Tribal leaders pointed this out. In particular, they noted that tribal status is a social category defined by tribes. It’s not defined by DNA tests.

In this sense, Elizabeth Warren isn’t Native American, and she’ll never be Native American. The results of DNA tests are beside the point.

Wait, so why is this a Right-Wing myth, then?

Look, I get it. Warren’s a Democrat. Shouldn’t I put this one in the liberal racial myths?

Nah. We find the whole ‘I’m Native American’ myth mostly in rural, conservative parts of the US.

Lots of Americans claim Native American status or ancestry. It’s one of the more common racial myths in the US, and it comes in part from idyllic images of frontier life. It’s also incredibly common for Americans to claim ancestry from Daniel Boone. And for similar reasons.

With Native Americans, though, whites (and some blacks as well) mix it all up with cultural notions of the ‘noble savage.’  After the colonization of the Plains and the West, non-native attitudes toward Native Americans shifted from fear to fascination. Non-natives collect arrowheads and other cultural artifacts. They mark burial grounds. They peddle real and invented goods. And, yes, they tell everyone their great-grandmother was a “full-blooded Indian princess.”

You might think this is harmless. Or you might use a clunky term like ‘cultural appropriation’ to describe some of it. But there’s harm here, and it’s harm we can describe using pretty standard leftist terms like ‘racism’. Whether or not we want to dip into the fancier ones.

Liberal and Race-Identitarian Racial Myths

Myth: I was Born White (or Black)

Fact: No One Was Born Black or White

The thing is that right-wingers and centrists aren’t the only people spreading biological racial myths. The left worked hard to stamp out the idea of race as biology. Two generations later, people further left (especially younger ones) resurrect the dead idea.

In particular, the ‘race as biology’ myth surfaced on the left during the debates over Rachel Dolezal’s so-called ‘transracial identity.’ Leftists, including myself, knew Dolezal was full of shit. But we had a difficult time saying why.

I’m not going to re-litigate the Dolezal issue here. I’ll set aside the story of why Dolezal isn’t black. My point is this: Dolezal isn’t black, but the reason is not that she was somehow born white and that black people were born black. There’s no such thing as being born white or black.

Kat Blaque, a great black trans activist, botched this point in her response to Dolezal. Here’s how Blaque puts it: “…gender is not a biological trait passed from parent to child, whereas race is. Evolution was regional, and there’s a reason why my skin is dark, and my ancestors come from the hot regions of Africa. Darker skin means more melanin. More melanin means more sun protection. That was necessary for groups of people, who historically are from areas where the sun is the hottest. That is evolutionary trait, passed from parent to child.”

Blaque’s intentions here are good. As is the rest of her response to Dolezal. But this quote is a swing and miss. It’s a restatement of biological racial myths. The quote conflates the social idea of race with the biological reality of color.

Myth: Black Americans Pass Racialized Trauma Genetically to Their Children

Fact: Racialized Trauma Isn’t Biologically Inherited

In recent years, a few racial justice advocates have peddled the claim that racialized trauma is passed biologically from parent to child. They seem to have first gotten the idea from well-known quacks who misuse scientific research.

Notably, ‘woke’ magazine Teen Vogue published a widely shared article peddling this false claim.

What’s the evidence for the claim? One study of the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. A study that has a variety of problems, from a sample size that’s too small, to the fact that it doesn’t rule out social factors, to the fact that it doesn’t even demonstrate its hypothesis. Let alone the fact that even if it’s true, it’s not clear that a study about 1-2 generations of Holocaust survivors would transfer to 3-6 generations of slavery survivors.

I don’t want to overplay my hand here. It’s not that we have proof that trauma isn’t biologically inherited. It’s just that we have zero reason to believe it is, and plenty of reason to believe that epigenetic inheritance among humans is rare. And, of course, transgenerational trauma is very much real. It just doesn’t come from genes.

The study gives scientists interesting lines of research, but that’s it. It’s speculation. And it reinforces the deeper myth that race is biological.

Conclusion: Race Still Isn’t Biological

That’s it. No pithy summary down here. Race isn’t biological. So quit claiming it is. Just stop it.

Postscript (July 31, 2022)

I want to add a brief clarification to the section on Racialized Trauma. While I used the terms ‘biological’ and ‘biologically inherited’ several times in that section, what I should’ve said was ‘genetic‘ and ‘genetically inherited.’ In short, we have no reason to believe that trauma passes along to children through the genes of the parent. A number of racial justice activists suggest otherwise, and they’re wrong to do so.

However, there’s some chance that trauma is passed along epigenetically, which means it’s passed along biologically by means other than genes. However, it’s not especially likely, and the evidence for it is quite slim.

On this topic, I’d recommend the book Evolution in Four Dimensions. It goes into the details of how genetics and epigenetics both contribute to evolution. And it’s acceptable for an educated layperson audience.