Of Course Race is a Social Construct

Me (in the back) with my friends from Sweden and Finland.

While I was in college, one of my affable hippie professors declared, to an audience of Poli-Sci 101 students, that race was a “social construct.” Observing the confused looks on his students’ faces, he elaborated. Race is a man-made concept, he said, and is not necessarily based in science. Instead, racial labels (including “black” and “white”) change with the times — and with political agendas. He pointed out that some…