#Race

A scientific consensus now makes a clear point: there is no meaningful biological basis for racial categories. Yet the social significance of race remains powerful in health, education, and policy around the world. For Thai audiences navigating conversations about ethnicity, heritage, and health, understanding what genetics actually shows is essential.

The Human Genome Project, completed about a quarter of a century ago, transformed how we view human variation. Genetic differences do not cluster into neat racial groups. Instead, most variation exists within any given population, and groups share more similarities than differences. This underscores that race, as a strict biological category, is a social construct shaped by culture and history, not DNA.

Genetics has delivered a powerful verdict in the ongoing discussion about “race”: there is no meaningful biological basis for racial categories, even as their social significance continues to impact lives worldwide. This scientific clarity comes at a time when political and cultural debates, such as recent US presidential orders attacking museum exhibitions that deny race is a biological reality, reignite age-old controversies. For Thai readers navigating conversations on ethnicity, heritage, and health, understanding what genetics truly reveals about human difference is more important than ever.