In this response to Frank’s comments regarding our recently published article in Demography (Guo et al. 2014), we also address the literature she cites to support her comments. We reiterate a central point already made in our original article. We do not try to explain racial identity. Our objective is to examine racial classification in U.S. social surveys. The general concept of racial identify is a much more complex subject involving many more historical, cultural, political, social, and ancestral factors than we address here. To be sure, a long history of work has attempted to link race to genetics in order to justify racial discrimination and race-based social stratification. However, advances in molecular genetics have afforded opportunities for natural and social scientists to study race using new tools and perspectives that do not necessarily serve to reify race but instead attempt to better explain its many dimensions and possible...

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