Sociologists defend collecting data by race 'Colorblind' view can't detect, fix inequalities: group

Despite a chorus of calls to the contrary, the government shouldkeep collecting data on race, the American Sociological Associationsaid Monday.

Some scholars and civic leaders argue that the idea of race onlypromotes social division. But to stop measuring race is not theanswer, the sociology group said at its annual meeting at the ChicagoHilton & Towers.

"If we ignore the fact that society groups into races, we will nolonger be able to monitor whether differences exist in opportunitiesand outcomes," said Barbara Reskin, the group's president.

"Without data, anybody's claim is as good as anyone else's, and wecan't tell if we need interventions."

Sociologists must have numbers to study racial profiling by lawenforcement, redlining of minority neighborhoods by the insuranceindustry, discriminatory medical treatment and tracking in schools,the association said.

"We hear people on the right say that we should have a colorblindsociety," said Reskin, a professor at the University of Washington inSeattle. "The danger in that is that we become blind to disparities."

More than biology is involved in racial data, said Troy Duster,chairman of the task force that crafted the association's statementon race.

"African Americans may have more prostate cancer because ofnutrition or because they live near toxic waste dumps," said Duster,a professor at New York University.

"Hypertension is higher among blacks [perhaps because] they arebeing profiled by police on the highway and followed in departmentstores." Duster noted that the hypertension drug Bidol is beingmarketed to African Americans.

Reskin pointed to a proposal at the University of Wisconsin tostop keeping track of students' race. "It's like saying we've solvedour problems, slapping ourselves on the back and going home," shesaid.

Arguing against collection of racial data, Russell Tuttle, aphysical anthropologist at the University of Chicago, said: "There isno such thing as biological race. The genetic difference in a singlepopulation of chimpanzees is far greater than in all of humanity."

Tuttle, who writes "mongrel" on forms that ask for his race, said,"I think we can deal with social injustice in other ways than havingthe label 'race.' "

Identifying people by race "only deepens the racial divide," saidShelby Steele of the Hoover Institution, based at StanfordUniversity.