Race is a social construct, but not just a social construct. And it was never science that said race was a social construct. It was a journalist, I believe. It was also not science that said race did not exist at all, another common misconception based on poor understanding of the genetics involved.
Science does in fact recognize that race is ingrained in our genetic makeup. Races are defined scientifically as collections of certain statistical traits that are inherited from our ancestors. What science no longer recognizes is an unproven convention of older science that held that there were clear defining lines that existed between one race and another.
Race is not a splatter of color samples so much as it is a gradient color chart. Also, there are no racial traits that seem to belong to any one race on the genetic level. So from a genetic point of view, determining one race from another may be difficult, but far from impossible. Many people have had their genetic lineage traced to many different races. Few people on earth still have lineages isolated enough to trace to one particular racial lineage. Especially in Africa and Asia.
Genes turn on and off not just according to environment, but according to inherited traits, regardless of the environment. This is why black people still give birth to black people, even in Iceland rather than Nigeria. And genetics does have an influence on behavior patterns. Just not to the extent that people once believed or tried to used to justify racism.
There is a strong basis for race in genes, and the science doesn't say there's not. The science is precise enough to actually track human lineage back to the various parts of the continents their distant ancestors lived. What the science actually says, minus the popularist bullcrap that some journalist made up, is that there are no traits that belong to just one particular race. But there are collections of traits that do belong to particular races through which they can be identified. Even forensic science can take a particular set of bones and tell you what race the person was when they were alive. You couldn't do that if there was no scientific basis for race.
Most genetic contributions to behavior are subtle. Like being prone to addictive behaviors. Being short-tempered. Being conformist. Being prone to religious or spiritual ideas. So subtle that by the time we are in our teens, society has found a way to overwhelm these behaviors and program new ones. Which is why they are mostly studied in isolated communities with little external influence by way of behavior.
There have also been studies done on twins who didn't grow up together to see if there were genetic behaviors they shared. The evidence isn't clear cut, but they did tend to exhibit similar behaviors for which researchers could not account for by environment and family.
There is no such thing as a white, black, yellow, or brown behavioral gene. White and black aren't even genetic designations. And yes, the societies in which we live overall are the largest influences on who and what we become.
Some people behaviors belonging to certain groups can indeed inherit some behavioral traits from the racial lineage of that group. But they are often subtle, not pronounced. And this is scientifically verifiable, not a myth. Race is not JUST a social construct and you won't find a scientist saying that it is all just convention.
