The social, economic, political, and genetic value of race and ethnicity in 2020
- PDF / 935,426 Bytes
- 5 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 49 Downloads / 164 Views
OPINION ARTICLE
Open Access
The social, economic, political, and genetic value of race and ethnicity in 2020 Tesfaye B. Mersha1*
and Andrew F. Beck2,3
Abstract Disparities across racial and ethnic groups are present for a range of health outcomes. In this opinion piece, we consider the origin of racial and ethnic groupings, a history that highlights the sociopolitical nature of these terms. Indeed, the terms race and ethnicity exist purely as social constructs and must not be used interchangeably with genetic ancestry. There is no scientific evidence that the groups we traditionally call “races/ethnicities” have distinct, unifying biological or genetic basis. Such a focus runs the risk of compounding equity gaps and perpetuating erroneous conclusions. That said, we suggest that the terms race and ethnicity continue to have purpose as lenses through which to quantify and then close racial and ethnic disparities. Understanding the root cause of such health disparities—namely, longstanding racism and ethnocentrism—could promote interventions and policies poised to equitably improve population health. Keywords: Race, Ethnicity, Genetic ancestry, Health disparity, Human origin
Introduction DNA studies and archeological findings tell us that present-day humans descend from hominids in Ethiopia and surrounding territories. Early humans migrated “out of Africa” some two million years ago (Fig. 1). The final migration of modern humans out of Africa occurred ~ 60,000 years ago and led to the inhabitation of all continents except Antarctica [2]. Geographic separation and adaptation to local environmental conditions subsequently produced recognizable phenotypic variations in humans in different parts of the world. Despite phenotypic variation, underlying genotypes are remarkably similar [3]. Thus, in this opinion article, we argue that classification of race and ethnicity based on genetic information is not valid nor appropriate. It has been contextual factors and experiences stretching across history, and not genetics, that divided people into the racial and ethnic categories of today. In turn, it is racism * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Division of Asthma Research, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 7037, Cincinnati 45229-3016, OH, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
and ethnocentrism that drive racial and ethnic-based health disparities.
Historical perspectives on race and ethnicity Today’s racial and ethnic categories arose long before the field of genetics. The term “race” was first formally used in the English language around 1580, from the old French “rasse” and the Italian “razza,” to categorize modern humans. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, scientists classified humans according to geographic locations using skin color, stature, and other distinguishing physical characteristics. Later, “nations” and “types” were introduced to describe humans
Data Loading...
