Ancestry is a more useful category than race say Dorothy Roberts, professor of Africana studies, law and sociology at University of Pennsylvania, and Michael Yudell, chair and associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Prevention at Drexel University. In an interview on the WHYY program The Pulse, they gave an example of how the use of race can hinder diagnosis of serious ailments. “[B]ecause of the myth that sickle cell is a black disease, or cystic fibrosis is a white disease, white patients may be under diagnosed for sickle cell and other hemoglobin diseases, and black patients have been under diagnosed for cystic fibrosis.” Roberts and Yudell are authors of the recently published article “Taking race out of human genetics,” (Science, February 5, 2016, Vol. 351, Issue 6273, pp. 564-565).
Scientists call for the removal of race in genetics research
by lindaoppenheim | Feb 19, 2016 | Article, Broadcast | 3 comments
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This is an interesting public acknowledgement that speaks volumes to the century old lies that skin color equals intellectual and social differences. With evidence like this, I must ask why is it so challenging for white people to see black humanness?
I recently came across the Ted Talk by Dorothy Roberts, one of the authors of this article, called “The problem with race-based medicine” and was incensed to see that this kind of “debunking” is still necessary with those who study science and the human genome in 2016!
I wonder what is the fear that keeps people clinging to differences? What keeps thier hrarts closed and their minds open to such foolish?