[id: two snippets from articles, black text on white. It is in question and answer format, and some changes have been made to the formatting for clearer understanding.
“Question: We did an episode not so long ago about how people from certain populations in North and West Africa were more likely to have a trait that makes them predisposed to sickle cell anemia. Is it possible that we risk missing out on important scientific realities if we are skittish about getting into genetics and race?”
“Answer: I think we need to be careful about what we mean when we say race. We know that the sickle cell trait exists in those regions of the world where cases of malaria are high, and that is because, as devastating as it is to have sickle cell anemia, having the trait provides some resistance to malaria. So in the regions where it exists, it is beneficial to the people who have it, because one risk outweighs the other. And this means it’s geographical- it’s not racial. It exists in certain parts of Africa and not at all, and it exists in other parts of the world outside Africa, where people don’t have black skin.
The reason it looks racialized in the U.S. is because in the U.S., many white people are of European ancestry, and many black people, because of the history of slavery, are of West African ancestry. That means that in the U.S., you see far higher rates of sickle cell in the black population than the white population.
But globally, it doesn’t look racialized. Globally, it looks as though people in certain regions of the world have it. So in the U.S., when people talk about sickle cell being a black disease or a black illness, they’re really using race as a proxy for geography.
And that goes for many illnesses or diseases that we think about as being racialized. Black Americans are more likely to die of almost everything than white Americans. The life expectancy of a black American is lower than a white American. It is perverse to assume that this must be genetic. Are black Americans so genetically disadvantaged that even infant mortality would be higher in black Americans? It just doesn’t make any sense. In the U.K., where I live, we see this life expectancy gap between the rich and the poor. It is exactly the same in America, but in America, it is treated as racial because socioeconomic circumstances run along racial lines.”
The second snippet reads:
“Question: the inscription in your book reads, ‘For my parents, the only ancestors I need to know.’ What does that mean?”
“Answer: Well, that kind of is a joke at ancestry-telling companies- when they tell us that you can find out who you are descended from, thousands of generations back, to your ‘actual ancestors.’ One, you can’t tell me who my actual ancestors are, because DNA testing cannot tell you that.
But secondly, why does it matter? Why is it so important to us to know who our distant ancestors were when we have people alive with us right now who can give us our culture, who can give us our frameworks, who can give us our sense of who we are, our sense of right and wrong, our place in the world?
[Race scientists] play on your sense of ethnicity or sense of origin story. They build up this image of you as being a biologically essential person, and that this ties you to this identity, and it becomes embedded in who you are.
And this is what ethnic nationalists do. They play on these assumptions and stereotypes and the lack of education we have around those issues, and they make us believe that identity is biological, when identity is cultural.”
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