The false linking of race and causality: lessons from standardized testing

Abstract

Race is often viewed as a causal variable and “race effects” found from regression analyses are sometimes given causal interpretations. I argue that this is a mistaken way to proceed. Race is not a causal variable in a very important sense of the word, and yet it does have a significant role in causal studies. The key role that race plays is to help our understanding of the effects of causes or interventions through the statistical “interaction” of race with causal variables, rather than as “the main effect of race.” These ideas are briefly illustrated using data from a study of tests constructed to manipulate the distribution of scores of Black and White test takers.