What we refer to as ‘races’ are racialised groups of people.

Racialization is a complex and multifaceted concept that has been used to describe the process by which certain groups are categorized and treated as inferior or superior based on their perceived racial or ethnic identity. This process is deeply rooted in historical and contemporary power dynamics, shaping societal norms and cultural identities.

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So it’s the society you live in that defines what groups of people get racialised and who belongs to that group. In the US and Europe, racialised groups include Arabs, African descended black and brown people, Eastern Asian people, Southern Asian people, latinx people, Native Americans, Roma/Sinti people, etc.

Since racialisation is purely a social construct, the people who get racialised change over time. Italians used to be a racialised group in the US but are now considered ‘white’.

With white, people usually refer to the ‘in-group’ of a society (from a US and European perspective). Being white means that you are not racialised. The answer to the question if someone would be considered ‘mixed’ if they descend from both England and Swedish is usually no, because English and Swedish people are considered white and don’t face characterisation or discrimination based on how they look.

Racialisation is unscientific and a form of discrimination. It’s a fact in society and it’s important to be aware that some people get racialised and thus treated differently based on their appearance, but trying to characterise people in a set of ‘races’ is not scientific because it is purely based on something as subjective as appearance.