The typologists sought to account for the special features of human races, and of the relations between them, by subsuming these within a general theory of the permanence of types. Social scientists have sought to account for the social aspects of racial differentiation by bringing the same data within the ambit of their own theories of group formation and group relations. To do so, they have extended general theories by adding extra propositions designed to allow for the ways in which racial groups differ from other kinds of groups. However, among the social science theories there is a deep gulf between those discussed here in terms of status and class. The proposition that physical signs can be used in the ascription of social status is not limited to the societies of Europe and North America. It can be applied in China, Japan or India. The severest critics of the approach from status assert that the explanations it produces are academically trivial and politically diversionary. They see the writings of the typologists not as a theory but as a smokescreen which served to distract attention from the injustices generated by the capitalist system, especially in its imperialist stage. It is said that those who try to replace the typological theory by elaborating concepts of status are closing their eyes to the political imperative when they should be using their specialist knowledge in the cause of radical reform.

This is the opposition between orthodox social science and Marxism.