ABSTRACT
It is a shock for many Americans to learn that race is a socially constructed category and that there is no biological basis for classifying people according to skin color, body form, or any other physical characteristic.1 All that we measure are the differences in how people look, according to arbitrary, culturally defined criteria, which our society uses to classify physical variations. About 70 percent of cultural anthropologists and half of physical anthropologists reject race as a biological category.2 Nevertheless, the recognition, even legislation, of racial categories has been a central theme in American history.
