"Globalization" is the hot new term to explain an old phenomenon. As early as 1936, Ralph Bunche contended that the "inequality of peoples" was becoming an organizing theme for political and economic life across the globe. He introduced the concept of "social race" to explain the consciousness of environmental and social conditions when manifested in groups of people. Economic and political systems, not biology, play a crucial role in the construction of a "social race." (Contains 3 footnotes.)