Can Biology End Racism?
by Miss Baker
A common argument against evolutionary biology is that it promotes racism. This argument persists even though scientists have smashed it to bits repeatedly. There are many reasons why biology cannot promote racism. Here is my favorite:
Biology Can’t Promote Racism Because…
Science is amoral - neither moral or immoral. Racism is the application of morality to race (e.g. whites are morally superior to blacks). Therefore, it is impossible for science to promote racism. Certainly, someone can take a scientific concept, twist it, and configure it to serve their own purposes, however, when they do this they are no longer practicing science.
Biology Can Help Destroy Racism
Modern genetics has shown that there are only minor differences between races. In fact, most geneticists don’t consider race at all. They believe race is a myth. Here are some reasons why:
1. There are more genes involved in the expression of height than there are in the expression of observable racial differences. In other words, a tall black man and a tall white man are probably more similar genetically than a tall black man and a short black man (source).
2. According to one article, the American Anthropological Society has stated, “The concept of race has no validity…in the human species.” Yes, there are some slight physical differences among people, but these are due to different environmental pressures.
Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, a Stanford Univ. geneticist said,
…the environment, literally, works only on the surface, changing skin and hair a little bit…Underneath, there has been little change.
3. “Not one characteristic, trait or even gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race” (source).
I’ve only touched on three reasons here, but you can find dozens upon dozens more on the website, “Is Race Real?” as well as on the fantastic PBS website, “Race”.
Unfortunately, some biologists like Jonathon Marks, a Univ. of California-Berkely anthropologist, are a bit pessimisic of their ability to convince people that the concept of race has no basis:
Teaching that racial categories lack biological validity can be as much of a challenge as teaching in the 17th century that the Earth goes around the sun.
Where is the Martin Luther King, Jr. of science?
January 21st, 2008 at 10:58 pm
There are some great points brought up in this post. Although it may not seem like racism still plays a huge part in society today, it really does. It may not be as public as it once was with segregation, but that does not mean that it is completely gone.
“In other words, a tall black man and a tall white man are probably more similar genetically than a tall black man and a short black man.”
I really liked that quote. People are a lot more alike than they may think and to discriminate against someone just because of how their genes expressed different racial differences, which not many genes are involved in doing, should be unthinkable. People can be much too cut-throat and judging, which I know is my judgment of other people(isn’t that odd how that works?), over stupid things. Everyone was created different for a reason and we should embrace that, not put people down because of that.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:56 am
This post probably brings out different emotions for different people and really shows a major problem still present all over the world.
I still agree with Mr. Jonathan Marks who is still not exactly sure if it is possible to convince everyone that racism is nothing, because first of all a lot of people in the world could care less what biology magazines, websites, and TV shows have to say they just care about what they can see and what they know. This also goes back to that the majority of the US is not science literate and would not know what any of these people were saying. Just like the quote people only really believe what they see and what they are comfortable with or what ever makes them the most happy.
On the other hand I really love this article because it totally cancels out all of the fights, wars, and arguments over the history of the world and if someone had discovered this thousands of years ago and people would have listened this could have saved millions of lives.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I found this post to be penetrating on multiple levels. Charlotte said “..people only really believe what they see and what they are comfortable with or what ever makes them the most happy..” I would have to second this statement. It also reminded me of chapel when Mr. Arnette was saying how enthralled our society is with the outside and has almost completely exempted anything dealing with taking a look on the inside. That might not seem to relate at first to this, but I beleive the fact wars, riots, arguments, political issues have all resulted from simply an attribute of a person less distinct than height?! Wouldn’t it be weird if a fight was started over some area of people being to tall? When we take a step back and look at these somewhat idiotic seeming accusations we realize that we’ve all made over-generalizations or judgements that are contradictary to morals or truth. Although, that’s could lead into a whole other debate..
On another note I was searching science blogs to see if I could find something on racism and I found something very interesting. ( This is kind of lengthy but I would really appreciate peoples input on this )
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2006/10/is-there-medicine-for-racism.html
That is a link to an article basiclly stating that in the U.S. Medical Program patients or enrollee’s for Medicare were somewhat discriminated against.
“The study examined data from over 300,000 Medicare enrollees between 2002 and 2004 and found, among other things, that blacks were 7% less likely to have their blood pressure controlled, and 8% less likely to have their blood sugar levels controlled, compared to whites - both key indicators of health plan quality.”
This is an excerpt from the article stating the facts they received from a study of how Blacks were discriminated against in the medical world.
My instant reactions to this were does this really instigate a racial problem? In other words by these statistics does it indicate the Medical system as being racist?
If I could get feedback from anyone that’d be great.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I really like the points brought up in this post. This is a very controversial topic. It has never even crossed my mind though about science or evolution being even envolved in racism. Back when we were learning about ecology and environmentalism and their differences, we were talking about environmentalism being morally or not morally right yet ecology doesn’t get involved in politics or morals. I would absolutly assume the case would be the same in this situation. Racism is a matter of people’s attitudes. Height, color or other physical features are mearly variations.
Grant- I agree that racism is still a bigger part of our world than most people realize. We really do need to embrace different traits people were blessed with and appreciate the diversity we have instead of discriminating against it.
Charlotte- I like the point you brought up in the last paragraph. That if people had realized this years ago it may have helped. But, it is hard to see, there probably would still have been plenty of people being scientifically ignorant and would have discriminated simply because they were different. I don’t think we could fully say that it would have made a difference unless we could back and do it again with this knowledge.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I agree with Charlotte & Grant in the fact that this article brings out a lot of interesting points, some more hard to talk about than others for some people in this world. It really facinates me that people are more simliar by “what were made up of” than in physical characteristics just as in the quote about the tall black man and short white man. I found a really neat website where you can look at pictures of people and guess what race they are. An interesting fact about classifying people is that up until 1960 people called census enumerators classified people simply by just looking at them. However, after many civil rights laws were passed around 1970, United States citizens were able to choose their own classification. This process is called “self-classification”, which we still use today. Click here to try and classify people yourself! http://www.pbs.org/race/002_SortingPeople/002_01-sort.htm
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I really agree with Grant on the quote, “A tall black man and a tall white man are probably more similar genetically than a tall black man and a short black man.” That almost blows racism up completely in one sentence. I also like how this quote, “…the environment, literally, works only on the surface, changing skin and hair a little bit…Underneath, there has been little change,” is saying that racism is based mainly on physical appearance but it is not based on real differences. Deep down all humans are extremely similiar and our physical appearance matters little to how we are all made.
January 24th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
This was a great post! It really got me thinking! To be honest, i have never even thought about racism in conection with biology! The thing that impacted me the most was the quote “A tall black man and a tall white man are probablly more similar genetically than a tall black man and a short black man!” I loved this quote, because it is so true!!!!Grant also made an excellent point and he is right, EVERYONE WAS CREATED FOR A REASON, and we should embrace that, and not use it as a way to put others down! In relation to charollette’s post, I do agree that people only really believe what they see and what they are comfortable with, becuase a lot of people grew up having to deal with the hole racism issue, to the point where segregation was their way of life they did not feel comfortable using the same things as the othere race ex. bathrooms, water fountains, or being in the same place with people of the other race ex. schools. Yes, racism has gotten alot better over time, but sadly it is still an issue!
January 24th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I agree with Charlotte when she says that most people dont care much about science enough for it to make a significant impact on people with racist thinkings. People will probably just keep being prejudice and thinking of other races as inferior to their own for no apparent reason. I think it is very interesting that the genetic difference between races is so small. But this wont help the battle against rasicm much if it is only in science magazines and stuff like that because most people dont read stuff like that. The information needs to be made more public to where more people will see it, it doesnt do good to discover something and not put it to use. And in response to Jonathon Marks’ quote i belive it is very true but eventually people did belive that the earth revolves around the sun, which at that time must have seemed as absurd as to think that rasicm will be ended. That gives me a lot of hope that eventually people will stop looking at racial differences as a bad thing and to accept everyone.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I remember talking about this in class because we were mentioning how one can choose the hair,eye,and other phenotypes to their choice. Mrs. Baker had said that there are only very minor differences in race. It is great that geneticists do not even consider racial differences. Imagina a racist geneticist! That would just make their work harder and not help science. When people twist science to their own advantage that is not science its pseudoscience, which is not factual at all. Unfortunatly, after reading Jonathon Mark’s qoute I think that it is somewhat true. Some people may believe race is not even a huge difference but convincing the world that it isn’t is extremely hard. Most people enjoy feeling inferior to other races and if proven equal they might feel threatened. That is like what happened in Martin Luther King’s time. I hope that biology will end racism because when it comes down to it we are ALL human.
January 27th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I agree with Jennifer that it’s great that geneticists do not consider racial differences. Just because two people have different skin pigments doesn’t mean they are any different genetically or emotionally. I liked the facts that were on the PBS website, especially the one that said “colorblindness will not end racism,” meaning that pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. It’s awful that racism still exists today, even though we have made tremendous progress since the 60s.
I liked Luigi Cavalli-Sforza’s quote, and I found a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr:
“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”
You can go to this website for more great quotes on racism.
http://www.ywcaofmissoula.org/racialjustice_quotes.htm
January 27th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I agree with everyone on this post. Great post Miss Baker! Racism is a point I don’t believe in. We were all made in different ways. So what? We all get different genes from our mother and father. There is not one person in this world that looks the same. Even twins are not made the same. Everyone has different features, thumbprints, hair, eye color, etc. We should not judge people by the color of their skin, or their culture. Like Grant said, I really like Jonathon’s qoute. It brings out the true meaning of life. That we should live our lives out to the fullest and not trying to always be better than someone. I think the MLK of science is that no racist, bias, points of views can be put into the work of science. Science is science. No one can change that.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 am
Knowing that racism is still very occurent in todays world, i dont see hoe anyone could believe that science promotes it after reading that. the facts are true and straight-forward. The tall white man and tall black vs. Short black man and tall black man example really proved alot about how stupid it it to judge people by their race. It would be the same to separate blue eyed white people from brown eyed white people and persecute one group. Skin color, eye color, height…. they are all just characteristics, none more important than the other. People decide to distinguish people based on skin color. (I think that that would be fine as long as they were treated the same….but they arent.) judging people based on skin color is the same thing as judging soemone based on eye color. If we call people with dark skin black, then why dont we call people with blue eyes, Blue people?? Racism is not only awful, it makes no sense. Science is not a promoter of racism. in fact it actually shows that race is a myth (like the post said)
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I would also like to agree with Charlotte that i think people only care about what is on the outside and not on the inside. Personnally i think if a racist person were to be given the facts about race and genes, i dont think it would change their views one bit. I dont think they even consider at all what is on the inside emotionally, much less what their DNA looks like. In the post about myths about race and sports it clearly shows that there is not much difference at all in our physical ability to do certain sports. Even if a racist person were to read that post, i dont think their views would change at all because they are too narrow-minded to look past skin color and other appearances. So to be honest, i dont think science can be much help into stopping racism because it cannot change the minds of arrogant people who choose to view the world in such a narrow-minded manner. Yes stephen i agree that it shows race is a myth, but i do not think that fact will help because if someone is so intent on viewing people based on their skin, i doubt they will change their ways because of scientific evidence.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
The Jersey Science Center has an exhibit on this topic. Their website also has some info on the topic.
http://www.lsc.org/race