Go ahead and look at the person sitting next to you. Or the person in the window of the coffee shop across the street. You probably categorize them instantly. Black, white, Asian, Latino. It’s automatic. We’ve been conditioned to believe these labels are rooted in deep, ancient biological differences. But here’s the kicker: biologically, race doesn't exist.
That’s the core premise of the landmark documentary series Race - The Power of an Illusion, and decades after its release, the science still holds up. We’re actually one of the most genetically similar species on the planet. Penguins have twice as much genetic variation as humans. Fruit flies? Ten times as much. We’re basically clones with different paint jobs.
Yet, we live in a world where race is arguably the most powerful social force in existence. It determines where you live, how much wealth your family accumulates, and even how long you’ll likely live. That’s the "illusion." It’s not a biological reality, but it’s a massive social one.
The Genetic Myth of "Pure" Groups
Humans love to categorize. We’ve been doing it since we lived in caves. But when it comes to the biology of race, the math just doesn't work out.
Richard Lewontin, a giant in the field of evolutionary biology, conducted a famous study in 1972 that changed everything. He looked at blood group proteins and other genetic markers. What he found was startling: 85% of all human genetic variation happens within any given local population. Think about that. You might have more in common genetically with a stranger in Nairobi than you do with your neighbor in Ohio.
Only about 6% of human variation is found between what we traditionally call "races."
It’s all about clines. Traits like skin color, hair texture, or eye shape change gradually over geographic space. There’s no magic line in the sand where "white" ends and "black" begins. If you walked from the tropics to the poles, you’d see a continuous spectrum of skin tones. The "boundaries" we use to define race are totally arbitrary. They’re leftovers from 18th-century naturalists who were obsessed with ranking things.
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Race - The Power of an Illusion and the Invention of Whiteness
We often talk about race as if it’s a timeless truth. It isn't.
Before the late 1600s, people didn't really identify as "white." They were English, Christian, or free. The concept of a "white race" was largely a legal invention in the American colonies to solve a specific problem: rebellion.
Back in the 1670s, poor European indentured servants and enslaved Africans started teaming up. Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia scared the daylights out of the elite planter class. Their solution? Give poor Europeans a few new privileges—the right to join militias, the ability to police enslaved people—to drive a wedge between the two groups. They created a new category called "white" to ensure that class solidarity would never happen again.
The Law as a Chemist
The law didn't just recognize race; it brewed it. Look at the history of the U.S. Census. In 1890, they had categories like "quadroon" and "octoroon." By 1930, those were gone, replaced by the "one-drop rule."
Then you have the courts. In 1922, Takao Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant, argued he should be considered "white" because his skin was pale and he was a model citizen. The Supreme Court said no, "white" means Caucasian. Only a year later, Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian immigrant, argued that he was technically Caucasian based on anthropological definitions. The Court moved the goalposts again, saying "white" is just what the common man knows it to be.
It was never about science. It was about power and gatekeeping.
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Why the "Illusion" Still Impacts Your Health
If race isn't biological, why do doctors use it? This is where things get messy and where the "power" of the illusion is most visible.
People often point to diseases like Sickle Cell Anemia as "Black diseases." But they aren't. Sickle Cell is a response to malaria. You find it in West Africans, sure, but also in Greeks, Turks, and Indians. It’s about geography, not race. If we treat it as a racial trait, we miss the people who have it but don't fit the "race," and we over-screen people who do.
The real health impact of race comes from weathering.
Dr. Arline Geronimus coined this term to describe the physiological toll of living with systemic racism. Constant stress triggers the "fight or flight" response, flooding the body with cortisol. Over decades, this literalizes social inequality into biological damage. It’s why African American women have significantly higher maternal mortality rates, regardless of their income or education. The illusion creates the reality.
The Wealth Gap is the Most Durable Illusion
When people say "race is a social construct," others often hear "it’s not real." But a social construct can have a $100,000 price tag.
Post-WWII, the U.S. government practically handed out the middle class to white families through the G.I. Bill and FHA loans. But there was a catch. The FHA explicitly refused to insure mortgages in or near African American neighborhoods—a process called redlining.
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- Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government backed $120 billion in home loans.
- Less than 2% of that went to non-white families.
- White families built equity that paid for college and retirements.
- Black families were locked into high-rent areas with no path to ownership.
The net worth of the average white family today is roughly eight times that of the average Black family. That isn't a result of "culture" or "hard work." It’s the result of 20th-century housing policy that treated the "illusion" of race as a concrete rule for investment.
Moving Beyond the Myth
So, what do we do with this? If we just say "I don't see color," we ignore the very real consequences that the "illusion" has built into our infrastructure.
True understanding requires holding two conflicting ideas at once:
- Race has no biological basis.
- Race is a primary determinant of life outcomes in our society.
If we want to fix the disparities, we can't pretend the categories don't exist. We have to dismantle the systems that were built when people thought they were real.
Steps Toward a Clearer Perspective
- Check your DNA assumptions. If you take a genealogy test, remember that "ethnicity estimates" are based on modern populations, not ancient, "pure" groups. They are fun, but they aren't a map of your biological destiny.
- Audit your surroundings. Look at your neighborhood, your workplace, or your social circle. If they are racially homogenous, ask why. Usually, the answer lies in historical housing policies or "network hiring" rather than personal choice.
- Support systemic overhauls. Since the wealth gap was created by policy, it likely needs policy to fix it. This means looking at things like equitable school funding (which is currently tied to property taxes) and biased AI algorithms in healthcare and hiring.
- Educate yourself on "The House We Live In." This is the third part of the Race - The Power of an Illusion series. It’s specifically about how our institutions—like the legal and housing systems—were built to benefit some at the expense of others.
Basically, the "illusion" is like a ghost that can still move furniture. You might not believe in the ghost, but you still have to deal with the chairs flying across the room. Recognizing the lack of biological foundation for race doesn't mean we live in a post-racial world. It just means we finally know that the "problems" we see aren't inevitable—they're man-made. And if we made them, we can unmake them.