Race in America

Biologists classify organisms into species. Species that have evolved from a common ancestor are linked together under the category of genus or the plural genera. Genera are then grouped into families such as Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens came into being around 70,000 years ago, even though the first humans evolved from East Africa roughly 2.5 million years ago. On a side note, Homo sapiens eliminated the Neanderthals. However, some might argue that the superior Homo sapiens won and attributed that to their superior brain power and aggressive nature. In any case, violence, irrationality, destruction and negative emotions like hate are the nature of Homo sapiens. Let’s visit The New York Times article in the March 25, 2018 edition titled “Race in the Age of Modern Genetics” by Dr. David Reich. Reich sets the stage for an understanding of race within biological science. In 1942, Ashley Montagu, the anthropologist, in his book, argued that race was a social concept that had no genetic basis. However, in 1972, Richard Lewontin, a geneticist employing a variation in protein types in blood, classified seven races-West Eurasians, Africans, East Asians, South Asians, Native Americans, Oceanians, and Australians. He stated that about 85% of variation in the protein types could be accounted for by variation within populations, and only about 15% variation across them. He added that “to the extent that there was variation among humans, most of that was because of differences between individuals.” From the data, a consensus established that among human populations, there were no significant differences to support the concept of race. Instead, race was considered a social construct, which is a way of categorizing people that changes over time and across countries. Dr. Lewontin wrote that human populations “are remarkably similar to each other” from a genetic point of view. However, Dr. Reich stated that groundbreaking advances in DNA sequencing have been made over the last two decades. And these advances enabled him to measure with accuracy what fraction of an individual’s genetic ancestry traces back to that say West Africa before the mixing in the Americas of the West Africans with European gene pools. He added that while race is a social construct differences in genetic ancestry correlate with some of today’s constructs. Dr. Reich used examples like skin color, bodily dimensions and susceptibility to disease. Moreover, Dr. Reich pointed out that the differences between males and females were most profound. In addition to anatomical biological differences between the sexes, were average differences in size and physical strength. To Be Continued