Why is There Still Racism If There is No Such Thing as “Race”?

Abstract

This presidential address is keyed to the exhibition "All of Us Are Related, Each of Us Is Unique." It reveals that there are no biological barriers between the 5.7 billion human beings that today inhabit the earth. We all have the same ancestors and the genetic diversity of contemporary human populations reflects the paths followed by our ancestors in the course of human migrations over the past 100,000 years. I assert that there is simply no such thing as "white people", "black people", "yellow people", or the like, except as social constructs. In a world in which intergroup hostility has long been based on erroneous beliefs in biologically determined characteristics of so-called "races", our habitual way of thinking about how we relate to each other needs seriously to be re-examined. I acknowledge gratefully the honor you have granted me, allowing me to serve for the past two years as your President. This office carries the privilege of addressing you this evening, on the opening day of the Silver Jubilee Congress of the International Association for CrossCultural Psychology. I do not take this privilege lightly; I accept it enthusiastically. This week the Association honors its past while looking to its future. Since I can look back over forty years as a cross-cultural psychologist, my comments this evening constitute a valedictory. In that spirit, I will look back briefly to a feature of the field that was salient when I first became involved with cross-cultural psychology. I will continue by discussing my current professional concerns, and I'll conclude with a look to the future, which includes a research project on which I will invite your cooperation and participation.