Neoracism fears in scientific research
Advances in genetic sequencing are giving rise to a new era of scientific racism, despite decades of efforts to reverse attitudes used to justify the slave trade and Nazi theology, experts say.
New forms of discrimination, known as neoracism, are taking hold in scientific research, spreading the belief that races exist and are different in terms of biology, behaviour and culture, according to anthropologists who spoke at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago.
"Genome science can help us a lot in the individualisation of medical practice," said Nina Jablonski, an anthropology professor at The Pennsylvania
State University.
But she warned that science could be "misused" to propagate the belief that people inherently have different abilities based on skin colour or ethnic background.
She cited new research urging that children be identified based on their genetically predetermined educational abilities and then put in separate
schools that could be used to foster different kinds of learning.
"We have heard this before and it is incredibly worrying," she said, recalling the segregation era when blacks and whites were schooled separately and African Americans were considered inferior.
"The educationalists who are proposing this meant this in a positive way but it is something that could be easily distorted if it were implemented."
Many distinguished scientists in the United States recognise that race itself is not a biological variable, but they still buy into the notion that shared ancestry can impart certain biological characteristics, said Joseph Graves, an associate dean for research at the University of North Carolina.
Published research has shown that blacks are more likely than whites to have a blood type that causes sickle cell disease and can protect against malaria, and are more likely to have a certain gene called APOL1, which protects against a parasite that causes sleeping sickness.
While Graves did not dispute these findings, he said it is wrong to imply that genetic differences account for the vast health disparities between whites and blacks.
"The assumption is that African ancestry predisposes one to greater disease and mortality profiles in the United States," Graves said at the conference.
"This is what I call the myth of the genetically sick African."
Instead, social factors are more likely to blame for poorer health among blacks in the United States, he said.
