Race and the Genetic Revolution: Science, Myth, and Culture

Published by Columbia University Press 2011

Race and the Genetic Revolution

Science, Myth, and Culture

Edited by: Sheldon Krimsky and Kathleen Sloan

https://doi.org/10.7312/krim15696

Overview
Contents

About this book

Do advances in genomic biology create a scientific rationale for long-discredited racial categories? Leading scholars in law, medicine, biology, sociology, history, anthropology, and psychology examine the impact of modern genetics on the concept of race. Contributors trace the interplay between genetics and race in forensic DNA databanks, the biology of intelligence, DNA ancestry markers, and racialized medicine. Each essay explores commonly held and unexamined assumptions and misperceptions about race in science and popular culture.

This collection begins with the historical origins and current uses of the concept of "race" in science. It follows with an analysis of the role of race in DNA databanks and racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Essays then consider the rise of recreational genetics in the form of for-profit testing of genetic ancestry and the introduction of racialized medicine, specifically through an FDA-approved heart drug called BiDil, marketed to African American men. Concluding sections discuss the contradictions between our scientific and cultural understandings of race and the continuing significance of race in educational and criminal justice policy.

Author / Editor information

Sheldon Krimsky is professor of urban and environmental policy and planning and adjunct professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University. He is the author of nine books, including Science in the Private Interest: Has the Lure of Profit Corrupted Biomedical Research? and is coauthor with Tania Simoncelli of the recent Columbia University Press title Genetic Justice: DNA Databanks, Criminal Justice, and Civil Liberties.

Kathleen Sloan has run nonprofit organizations for more than twenty years and has directed communications and public relations functions for multinational corporations and nonprofits. She organized a major national conference on the impact of forensic DNA databanks on racial disparities in the criminal justice system for the Council for Responsible Genetics, where she formerly directed programs on both race and genetics and women and biotechnology.

Reviews

An important strength of this timely,engaging, and readable book—and what distinguishes it from some others—is the claritywith which it demonstrates how genomics findings in one discipline... are applied to others...

Health and science collections alike will find this college-level discussion offers important connections between science and cultural awareness of race, and makes for key reading for students and researchers alike.

Dorothy Roberts, author of Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century:
Essential reading for researchers, students, and policymakers seeking to challenge the new racial genetics.

Adolph Reed Jr., University of Pennsylvania:
A signal contribution. This volume wonderfully reflects the mission and track record of the Council for Responsible Genetics in clarifying the content and social significance of complex scientific issues and demystifying the ideological penumbras that surround them. I can hardly wait for this book to begin circulation. It should be read and taught as widely as possible.

David Rosner, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University:
There is perhaps no issue that is of more interest and relevance to the social study of science and public health than race and genetics, and Sheldon Krimsky and Kathleen Sloan are leaders in the field. Novel and forward thinking, this book will be a valuable addition to a literature that needs to be brought up to speed.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Evelynn Hammonds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Introduction: How Science Embraced the Racialization of Human Populations Sheldon Krimsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Science and Race
1. A Short History of the Race Concept Michael Yudell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Natural Selection, the Human Genome, and the Idea of Race Robert Pollack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Part II: Forensic DNA Databases, Race, and the Criminal Justice System
3. Racial Disparities in Databanking of DNA Profiles Michael T. Risher Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
4. Prejudice, Stigma, and DNA Databases Helen Wallace Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
Part III: Ancestry Testing
5. Ancestry Testing and DNA Uses, Limits, and Caveat Emptor Troy Duster Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
6. Can DNA “Witness” Race? Forensic Uses of an Imperfect Ancestry Testing Technology Duana Fullwiley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Part IV: Racialized Medicine
7. Bidil and Racialized Medicine Jonathan Kahn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
8. Evolutionary Versus Racial Medicine Why It Matters Joseph L. Graves Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
Part V: Intelligence and Race
9. Myth and Mystification Th e Science of Race and IQ Pilar N. Ossorio Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
10. Intelligence, Race, and Genetics Robert J. Sternberg, Elena L. Grigorenko, Kenneth K. Kidd and Steven E. Stemler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Part VI: Contemporary Culture, Race, and Genetics
11. The Elusive Variability of Race Patricia J. Williams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
12. Race, Genetics, and the Regulatory Need for Race Impact Assessments Osagie K. Obasogie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Conclusion Toward a Remedy for the Social Consequences of Racial Myths Kathleen Sloan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 304
Illustrations
- Other: 1 illus; 4 tables

eBook

Published: September 27, 2011
ISBN: 9780231527699