Response to comments on 'A post-genomic surprise'.

In response to the seven authors who offered comments on my paper, I have tried to synthesize and distill common themes. Foremost among them is the charge to look forward, not only to consider probable developments and implications for how this 'molecular reinscription of race' will unfold in forensics and clinical medicine, but as well to suggest how the discipline of Sociology can and should respond. But as several of the commentators noted, this is not just a matter for a single discipline, but should be fertile ground for coordinated empirical investigation by such fields as the Social Studies of Science, Anthropology of Medicine, and Critical Race Theory. For sociologically informed reasons, social scientists should be wary of the unanticipated consequences of collaboration with human molecular geneticists who come to the table deploying databases with pre-fabricated categories of race, thereby poised to provide genetic explanations of social outcomes based upon race and ethnicity. A cautionary note is provided explaining how and why some joint projects are advised, some are ill-advised.