Sociologists have long shown that established racial classification systems are arbitrary and evolved from systems of stratification, power and ideology (Frazier 1947; Blauner, 1972; Omi and Winant 1994). In critiques of the conceptual, methodological and conceptual implications of using race as a variable in health research, sociologists have rejected the dominant view of the last century that racial disparities in health primarily reflect biological differences between racial groups (Wilkinson and King 1987; Williams 1997; American Sociological Association 2003). Troy Duster (1984), for example, has shown how an emphasis on the genetic sources of racial disparities in health can serve important ideological functions in society. Views of race that focus on biology can divert attention from the social origins of disease, reinforce social norms of racial inferiority, and promote the maintenance of the status quo. If racial differences in health are caused by inherent genetic differences, then social policies and structures that initiate and sustain the production of disease are absolved from responsibility. Sociologists have also emphasized that science is not value free and that preconceived opinions, political agendas and cultural
