Controversial Issues In Racial Research

Race is a pattern-based concept that has led scientists and laypersons alike to draw conclusions about hierarchical organizations of humans, which connect an individual to a larger preconceived culturally constructed group. Racial research has a long and controversial history. At the turn of the 20th century, sociologist and civil rights leader W. E. B. Du Bois was the first to synthesize natural and social scientific research to conclude that the concept of race was not a scientific category. Contrary to the then-dominant view, Du Bois maintained that health disparities between blacks and whites stemmed from social, not biological, inequality (Du Bois 1906). A child's sense of perceptions of the world as fair, equal, and just are significantly