The modern field of cultural evolution emerged in the 1970s, in the aftermath of the ‘race and IQ’ and ‘human sociobiology’ debates, as a direct counter to extreme hereditarian positions. Yet, despite genetic data refuting any suggestion of racial substructure to human populations, naive interpretations of race that advertently or inadvertently perpetuate racist ideas remain prevalent across the biological sciences, including concerning ancestry, health, sport, and intelligence. A cultural evolution perspective can help identify unwarranted reductionist and determinist claims while providing a more inclusive multidisciplinary framework with which to interpret human variation. Natural and social scientists have an important role to play in disseminating the multifaceted explanation for racial disparities to the wider public.