Genetic Bio-Ancestry and Social Construction of Racial Classification in Social Surveys in the Contemporary United StatesPosted in Articles, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2013-09-13 02:05Z by Steven |
Demography
September 2013
32 pages
DOI: 10.1007/s13524-013-0242-0-0
Guang Guo, Professor of Sociology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Yilan Fu
Hedwig Lee
Tianji Cai
Kathleen Mullan Harris
Yi Li
Self-reported race is generally considered the basis for racial classification in social surveys, including the U.S. census. Drawing on recent advances in human molecular genetics and social science perspectives of socially constructed race, our study takes into account both genetic bio-ancestry and social context in understanding racial classification. This article accomplishes two objectives. First, our research establishes geographic genetic bio-ancestry as a component of racial classification. Second, it shows how social forces trump biology in racial classification and/or how social context interacts with bio-ancestry in shaping racial classification. The findings were replicated in two racially and ethnically diverse data sets: the College Roommate Study (N = 2,065) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 2,281).
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