Findings Undermine "Race Isn’t Real" Theory
Anthropology Wednesday, September 8, 2004 . This is a SciScoop post by jekluk
From a
story in World
Science:
For years, mainstream scientists have said there are no real racial differences among people. Race is purely a “social construct” – in other words, it’s imaginary, some have argued.
But two new studies raise doubts about a key calculation on which this argument rests.
This calculation, often cited publicly by world-renowned geneticists, is that all humans are more than 99.9 percent genetically identical.
As geneticist
Eric Lander told
Wired Magazine in February, 2001, any two humans are “more than 99.9 percent identical at the molecular level. Racial and ethnic differences are all indeed only skin deep.”
Even U.S. President Bill Clinton said, in a 2000 speech: “All human beings, regardless of race, are more than 99.9 percent the same.”
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1 Response to Findings Undermine "Race Isn’t Real" Theory
rickyjames
September 8th, 2004 at 7:43 pm
The few opening paragraphs you cite do nothing to support your headline and in fact are representative of the so-called outmoded theory that is supposed to have been overthrown. Somebody just skimming this is going to remember the 99.9% identical part which you say is now obsolete. You need to at least get to the name of the researcher and his work and conclusions before you bail on the text.
Or better yet, dig a little on the story and quote the entire referenced press release verbatim as your complete article, a story which has nothing to do with race originally.
Or better yet, pick a story for SciSCoop where numerous credible scientists contacted for backup don’t refuse to talk to the agenda-toting author who just wants to troll about race and genetics. Try Science Daily or EurekaAlert for story ideas – it works for me.