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The genomic revolution is highly relevant to scholarship on racial conceptualization. As genomic research has increasingly focused on small amounts of variation between ancestral groups, it may promote beliefs in racial essentialism. Genetic ancestry tests (GATs) are one of the primary ways the consequences of the genomic revolution are communicated to laypersons, necessitating a better understanding of how test-takers conceptualize race. We analyse 108 in-depth interviews with U.S. and Canadian test-takers to examine how they conceptualize the relationship between race and genes and how they believe GATs influenced their race concepts. We present a typology of racial conceptualization that moves beyond a dichotomy and toward a continuum between social constructivism and genetic essentialism. We also find that test-takers believe GATs reinforce their pre-existing race concepts, regardless of what those were. Our results support an emerging view that people selectively interpret genetic information to confirm rather than transform their race concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racial essentialism is the belief that races are biologically distinct groups with defining core 'essences,' a notion associated with increased social distance and racial bias. While there are different kinds of racial essentialism, understanding and measuring genetic essentialism - the belief that racial groups and their defining core essences are determined by genes - is increasingly important in the wake of the Human Genome Project and the genomic revolution that it spurred. Many have questioned whether such genomic advances will reinforce genetic essentialist beliefs about race, but scholarly research is limited by measures that do not specify the role of genes in these beliefs or allow for distinct theoretical sub-components. In this paper, we develop and validate the Genetic Essentialism Scale for Race (GESR) using a sequential transformative mixed methods approach. Data for analysis come from an original survey-based study with a sample of 1069 White native-born Americans. We employ both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory analysis to derive and confirm a three-factor model of genetic essentialism (category determinism, core determinism, and polygenism). Due to the high correlation between these factors, we also test for a second-order measurement model with three first-order factors. After conducting additional reliability, validity, and construct validity testing, we propose the GESR- a second-order construct with three first-order dimensions- as a reliable measure of genetic essentialism. The GESR will allow researchers to determine the impact of new genetic developments like race-based medicines and genetic ancestry testing on genetic essentialist beliefs about race., Author(s): Sule Yaylaci [sup.1] [sup.2] , Wendy D. Roth [sup.3] , Kaitlyn Jaffe [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.17091.3e, 0000 0001 2288 9830, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, , [...]

The phenomenon of widespread genetic ancestry testing has raised questions about its social impact, particularly on issues of race. Some accounts suggest testing can promote bridging social capital – connections between racial groups. In this multi-method paper, we ask whether (1) taking genetic ancestry tests (GATs) and (2) receiving results of African, Asian, or Native American ancestry increases network racial diversity for White Americans. We use a randomized controlled trial of 802 White, non-Hispanic Americans, half of whom received GATs. Unexpected findings show that test-takers' network racial diversity decreases after testing. Using 58 follow-up interviews, we develop and test a possible theory, finding initial evidence that test-takers' network racial diversity declines because they reconsider their racial appraisals of others in their networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recognize and respond to the diversity within this group and to question the binary categories of domestic students and international students. Relying primarily on 116 qualitative interviews with international undergraduates at the University of British Columbia, we utilize American students as a case study from which to explore the complex and blurred boundaries between these two categories. Americans resemble domestic students in some respects and international students in others, yet they are often less prepared to meet adaptational challenges because they have low expectations of cultural and institutional differences. We compare the experiences of Americans and international students from other countries, as well as other groups of students who fall between the cracks of the domestic and international student classifications. We argue that, by targeting services on the basis of these broad administrative categories, categories that were created for financial purposes, the university reduces the take-up of the very services students need. (Contains 20 notes, 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Demonstrating how race is socially constructed has been a core sociological objective, yet many individuals continue to hold essentialist and other concepts of what races are and how to account for group differences. These conceptualizations have crucial consequences for intergroup attitudes, support for social policies, and structures of inequality, all of which are key sociological concerns; yet much of the research in this area has emerged outside of sociology. Our review of this interdisciplinary scholarship describes the range of views people hold, the attitudes and behaviors associated with them, and what factors contribute to these views. We focus primarily on essentialism and constructivism, although we describe the greater variety of beliefs beyond this dichotomy, as well as fluidity in how people use these concepts. We conclude by presenting research on strategies for reducing essentialist belief systems and identifying key areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A core sociological claim is that race is a social construction; an important illustration of this is how racial classifications are influenced by people's socioeconomic status. In both Latin America and the United States, someone with higher SES is more likely to be classified as White than others of similar appearance, a pattern epitomized by the expression "money whitens." However, recent studies of the effect of SES on racial classifications show inconsistent results, sometimes depending on the measures used. We develop a broad theorization of societies as having multiple racialized hierarchies with different socioeconomic escalators potentially bringing people to higher-status locations in each one. Yet racialized hierarchies differ across societies, and some non-White classifications may reflect a process of upward movement while others may not. We assess this process in Mexico using the 2019 Project on Ethnic-Racial Discrimination in Mexico, a nationally-representative survey including highly accurate digital skin-color ratings, perceived skin-color assessments, and ethnoracial classifications by respondents and interviewers. We find that having higher education increases respondents' self-classification as Mestizo. Yet those with greater wealth are "whitened" by interviewers. Simultaneously, respondents and interviewers "lighten" respondents with greater wealth. We argue that SES can differentially affect mobility in different racialized hierarchies, showing how race is constructed partly by other social constructs like class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of panethnic boundary formation focus on multi-ethnic environments like immigrant receiving nations. Central to these accounts are the structured interactions between the ethnic majority and the minorities they perceive as a homogenous group. I argue that theoretical models of panethnicity overlook how panethnic identities may be extended transnationally to migrant sending societies lacking local ethnic interactions. Using multi-sited ethnography and qualitative interviews in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, I illustrate the transmission of panethnicity through globalized Spanish media and interpersonal transnational contact. The political relationship between sending and receiving societies shapes these mechanisms of identity transmission, illustrating the need to make these relationships central to the emerging concept of transnational social fields. Keywords: Panethnicity; Latino; transnationalism; identity; Puerto Rico; Dominican Republic.

Ginetta E.B. Candelario, Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007, 340 pp. $US 23.95 paper (978-0-8223-4037-9), $US 84.95 hardcover [...]

Genetic ancestry testing is a billion-dollar industry, with more than 26 million tests sold by 2018, which raises concerns over how it might influence test-takers' understandings of race. While social scientists argue that genetic ancestry tests may promote an essentialist view of race as fixed and determining innate abilities, others suggest it could reduce essentialist views by reinforcing a view of race as socially constructed. Essentialist views are a concern because of their association with racism, particularly in its most extreme forms. Here we report the first randomized controlled trial of genetic ancestry testing conducted to examine potential causal relationships between taking the tests and essentialist views of race. Native-born White Americans were randomly assigned to receive Admixture and mtDNA tests or no tests. While we find no significant average effect of genetic ancestry testing on essentialism, secondary analyses reveal that the impact of these tests on racial essentialism varies by type of genetic knowledge. Within the treatment arm, essentialist beliefs significantly declined after testing among individuals with high genetic knowledge, but increased among those with the least genetic knowledge. Additional secondary analysis show that essentialist beliefs do not change based on the specific ancestries reported in test-takers' results. These results indicate that individuals' interpretations of genetic ancestry testing results, and the links between genes and race, may depend on their understanding of genetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals are claiming greater scope for choice in their racial identities. But how they are seen and classified by others is not necessarily changing in a similar way. Racial appraisals are the way that people classify the race of others, both particular individuals and larger groups. In this paper, I make a case for the study of racial appraisals as a field of sociological inquiry. I map out the different analytical levels and methodological approaches for this field and discuss how these can be used to understand observed race, norms of racial classification, and societal norms of the racial order. I present an example of how societal norms and logics of racial classification can be analysed in real time through survey research, using 2015-16 data on 866 White Americans’ reactions to Rachel Doležal’s racial identity claims. I present an agenda for studying changes in racial boundaries and classification norms through the longitudinal tracking of racial appraisals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the problems associated with categorizing race and ethnicity through census. Topics discussed include the various ways in which the term race is interpreted as shown by international comparisons of census surveys, an illustration through Canadian minority classification of how statistical categories used in surveys and census can create methodological challenges for studying race and the factors that influence people's interpretation of the words race and ethnicity.

Increasing numbers of people in the United States and beyond experience ‘race' not as a single, consistent identity but as a number of conflicting dimensions. This article distinguishes the multiple dimensions of the concept of race, including racial identity, self-classification, observed race, reflected race, phenotype, and racial ancestry. With the word ‘race' used as a proxy for each of these dimensions, much of our scholarship and public discourse is actually comparing across several distinct, albeit correlated, variables. Yet which dimension of race is used can significantly influence findings of racial inequality. I synthesize scholarship on the multiple dimensions of race, and situate in this framework distinctive literatures on colourism and genetic ancestry inference. I also map the relationship between the multidimensionality of race and processes of racial fluidity and racial boundary change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This special issue brings together original research that advances the emerging subfield on the measurement and analysis of varying components of race. The articles provide insight into how social scientists can tease apart the multiple components of race and leverage them to better understand how race continues to divide life chances, creatively using existing and new sources of data. The articles speak to three key themes: how we can better understand the various ways that race is experienced, alternative approaches to measuring the different components of race, and the implications of race measures for understanding social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views on the documentary film series "Black in Latin America," by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The author believes that the film offers an opportunity for American and other audiences to show that there are many kinds of blackness in different regions. Gates has missed much of the complexity of racial classification in the country while applying an American model of blackness to the Dominican Republic, says the author.

The economic benefits to immigrants of taking jobs in ethnic workplaces, relative to the open economy, are heavily debated. We examine longitudinally differences across immigrant categories in how the choice of ethnic or non-ethnic workplace influences the ethnic composition of social networks and how these factors impact immigrants' economic success. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, with data 6 months, 2 years, and 4 years after arrival, we find support for both sides of the ethnic economy debate when it is qualified by immigrant category. While economic immigrants benefit from non-ethnic workplaces, family immigrants face economic penalties in the open economy and do better in ethnic workplaces. We argue that policies sorting immigrants into visa categories do much of the work of leading them into segmented paths of incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic benefits to immigrants of taking jobs in ethnic workplaces, relative to the open economy, are heavily debated. We examine longitudinally differences across immigrant categories in how the choice of ethnic or non-ethnic workplace influences the ethnic composition of social networks and how these factors impact immigrants' economic success. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, with data 6 months, 2 years, and 4 years after arrival, we find support for both sides of the ethnic economy debate when it is qualified by immigrant category. While economic immigrants benefit from non-ethnic workplaces, family immigrants face economic penalties in the open economy and do better in ethnic workplaces. We argue that policies sorting immigrants into visa categories do much of the work of leading them into segmented paths of incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Positivist and interpretivist analytical approaches are frequently believed to be incompatible as research strategies and ways of understanding the world. This article argues that not only may versions of positivism and interpretivism be combined in the analysis of contested events, but this combination can further the goals of both approaches by contributing information that may have been missed by adopting only one perspective. The authors illustrate this using two case studies of lethal school shootings near Paducah, Kentucky, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, and introduce methodological strategies to manage potential biases that may lead to contradictory testimony. However, these same contradictions act as distinct data points from the interpretivist perspective, offering insight into the cultural understandings of a community. The authors develop new forms of triangulation that are tailored to these research goals and illustrate how, just as positivist analysis may be used to aid interpretivism, an interpretive understanding of a community may be necessary to develop causal theories of contested events such as school shootings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]