Race and the Genetic Revolution: Science, Myth, and Culture
Sheldon Krimsky and Kathleen Sloan
Abstract
Do advances in genomic biology create a scientific rationale for long-discredited racial categories? Chapters based in the fields of law, medicine, biology, sociology, history, anthropology, and psychology examine the impact of modern genetics on the concept of race. Chapters trace the interplay between genetics and race in forensic DNA databanks, the biology of intelligence, DNA ancestry markers, and racialized medicine. Each chapter explores commonly held and unexamined assumptions and misperceptions about race in science and popular culture. The book begins with the historical origins and c ... More
Do advances in genomic biology create a scientific rationale for long-discredited racial categories? Chapters based in the fields of law, medicine, biology, sociology, history, anthropology, and psychology examine the impact of modern genetics on the concept of race. Chapters trace the interplay between genetics and race in forensic DNA databanks, the biology of intelligence, DNA ancestry markers, and racialized medicine. Each chapter explores commonly held and unexamined assumptions and misperceptions about race in science and popular culture. The book 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. Chapters 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 chapters discuss the contradictions between our scientific and cultural understandings of race and the continuing significance of race in educational and criminal justice policy.
Keywords:
genomic biology,
racial categories,
modern genetics,
forensic DNA databanks,
intelligence,
DNA ancestry markers,
racialized medicine,
recreational genetics,
criminal justice policy
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780231156974 |
| Published to Columbia Scholarship Online: November 2015 |
DOI:10.7312/columbia/9780231156974.001.0001 |
