The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biomedical Research and the Social Construction of Race Summer Public Health Videoconference on Minority Health, June 18 th Dr. Joseph L. Graves, Jr. Professor of Evolutionary Biology Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Dept. of Life Sciences, ASU-West

Even eminent scientists are still confused on this issue. “Because of this mixing, many anthropologists argue, quite reasonably that there is no scientific justification for applying the word ‘race’ to human beings. But the concept itself is unambiguous, and I believe that the word has a clear meaning to most people. The difficulty is not with the concept, but with the realization that major human races are not pure races.” – James Crow, Daedalus, Winter 2002, pg. 84.

For a fuller treatment see: J.L. Graves, Chapter 11, The Race & Disease Fallacy in The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium, Rutgers University Press, 2001.

Differential mortality between socially constructed races have been a consistent feature of American life. “ Do Negroes Recover from Phithisis?” Journal of the American Medical Association 40 (22) (May 20, 1903): The information was requested from physicians residing in the South who had considerable numbers of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis among the African race, if they knew any who recovered… Responses appeared in June 13, 1903 issue Volume 40 (24), pages 1061—1662.

“Race” & Disease differentials 2 Dr. E. A. Cobleigh of Chattanooga, Tennessee writes that he doesn’t recall a single case to recover. He writes “that when a negro becomes visibly affected with pulmonary phithisis his doom is already practically sealed.” Dr. E. D. Bondurant of Mobile, Alabama writes that the mortality is greater in the black race than in the white race and that the disease runs a more rapidly fatal course in blacks.

African-American doubled Euro-American mortality in the 20 th century. Age specific mortalities from 24 biological sources of disease. Blacks and whites contrasted for 1963, 1980, & This pattern is not consistent with a genetic explanation.

Confused research programs The pressing question is why have these mortality differentials persisted across modern times? The biomedical research establishment has unjustifiably focused on simple genetic explanations. Notable examples are the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and Pellagra.

Pellagra, forgotten killer of American children Charles P. Davenport and the Eugenics Record Office of Cold Spring Harbor. The ERO disputed Joseph Goldberger’s demonstration that Pellagra is a vitamin deficiency disease. From 1916 to 1941, 75,000 people would die, 55% of them, non-white children. Black pedigree from the ERO

Confused research paradigms 2 The National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Aging currently utilize the term “special populations.” Special populations includes: “minorities, women, and the disabled.” What is biologically special about these groups??

Confused Definitions and Research programs 3 No biologically defined races exist within the human species. This recognition goes back to Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man, Biological races are properly defined as subspecies.

Sufficient criteria for race There must be a sufficient amount of genetic distance, consist with that of subspecies rank. Or the populations must have been maintained as unique evolutionary lineages New York Times, July 17, 1950

Population subdivision statistics are inconsistent with the use of race in humans. Human populations have considerable genetic overlap across the genome -- They have also maintained relatively high levels of gene flow throughout history, Wright’s F ST = Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, and Piazza 1994, data from Templeton (1998, 2002.)

Estimate of gene flow between human subpopulations Wright’s F st for human data = We can calculate the effective population size and the migration rate for humans by the equation: F st = 1/(4Nm + 1) Thus Nm = 1.35 Thus modern human genetic diversity can be explained by the long term average of 1.35 individuals per 25 years, or 13.5 per 250 years, or 135 per 2,500 years. Thus sporadic movements that over long periods of time that average out to these values could easily explain human genetic diversity. Fig , Cavalli-Sfroza, Menozzi, and Piazza 1994.

Criteria for race: Unique lineages? All human genetic distance data sets that have been tested fail to fit “tree-ness.” Bowcock et al., 1991; Cavalli-Sfroza et al. 1996; Nei and Roychoudhury 1974, 1982; Templeton Fig. 2.2A, Templeton 2002