Disparities across racial and ethnic groups are present for a range of health outcomes. In this opinion piece, we consider the origin of racial and ethnic groupings, a history that highlights the sociopolitical nature of these terms. Indeed, the terms race and ethnicity exist purely as social constructs and must not be used interchangeably with genetic ancestry. There is no scientific evidence that the groups we traditionally call “races/ethnicities” have distinct, unifying biological or genetic basis. Such a focus runs the risk of compounding equity gaps and perpetuating erroneous conclusions. That said, we suggest that the terms race and ethnicity continue to have purpose as lenses through which to quantify and then close racial and ethnic disparities. Understanding the root cause of such health disparities—namely, longstanding racism and ethnocentrism—could promote interventions and policies poised to equitably improve population health.

中文翻译：

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2020 年种族和民族的社会、经济、政治和遗传价值

种族和族裔群体之间的差异存在于一系列健康结果中。在这篇评论文章中，我们考虑了种族和族裔群体的起源，这段历史突出了这些术语的社会政治性质。事实上，种族和民族这两个词纯粹是作为社会结构存在的，不能与遗传血统互换使用。没有科学证据表明我们传统上称为“种族/民族”的群体具有独特、统一的生物学或遗传基础。这种关注可能会加剧股权差距并导致错误结论长期存在。也就是说，我们建议种族和族裔这两个术语继续具有作为量化和缩小种族和族裔差异的镜头的目的。了解这种健康差异的根本原因——即，