‘When are you from?’ Time, space, and capital in the molecular reinscription of race Jonathan Kahn The concept of biological race is an ideological vampire. It withers when subjected to the light of day, yet no matter how many times it is struck down, it seems to keep coming back from the dead. From Boas in the early twentieth century, to Montague in mid-century and Lewontin and Gould toward the end, scientists and social scientists alike have been fighting what seems to be the same battle over and over again to assert that race is not some inherent, fixed biological or genetic characteristic that marks out distinct sub-divisions of the human species (Marks 1995; Reardon 2005; Morning 2011). Each time there are those who claim some new insight into the biological basis of race. In the USA IQ tests seem to be an enduring favourite, but there have also been endless attempts to measure every conceivable body part to find some sort consistent biological difference among designated races – a practice that goes back to the days of slavery (Gould 1996; Hammonds and Herzig 2008). In A Post-Genomic Surprise:The Molecular Reinscription of Race in Science, Law, and Medicine (2015), Troy Duster aptly notes the irony that with the new millennium and completion of the Human Genome Project science was supposed to have finally put this question to rest. But, of course, this was not the case; because, as Duster’s fine analysis makes clear, at its core the question of whether race is bio- logical (or more specifically, genetic), like the concept of race itself, is not simply scientific but also profoundly social, cultural, historical and political. In focusing on ancestry, medicine, and forensics, Duster deftly illuminates many of the unanticipated ways new genomic knowledge has been used to reinscribe race at the molecular level. His particular concern is to explore the ‘mission creep’ or ‘spin offs’ of genomic knowledge into diverse areas largely unforeseen by the original drivers of the Human Genome Project – areas with highly problematic implications for reinforcing racial stratification and imped- ing the progress of racial justice. Beyond those who would geneticize race, there is, I would like to suggest, an additional ironic unanticipated consequence of progress made by those who have asserted the social basis of racial construction. As observed by Dorothy Roberts (2011), among others, some conservatives have actually embraced the Kahn (Hamline University) (Corresponding author email: jkahn01@hamline.edu) © London School of Economics and Political Science 2015 ISSN 0007-1315 print/1468-4446 online. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA on behalf of the LSE. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12117 68 Jonathan Kahn © London School of Economics and Political Science 2015 British Journal of Sociology 66(1)