race and genetics
Jun. 12th, 2003 12:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serenissimaI watched an interesting documentary mini-series that aired on PBS a few months ago, called "Race: The Power of an Illusion." The main point of the first episode was that there is no scientific basis for dividing our species into races, it's only a social construct. It said that there is as much genetic variation within one race as between people of different races. A person from Sweden could conceivably have more DNA in common with someone from Uganda than with another person from Sweden. The physical traits shared among people from the same region, such as eye/hair/skin color, hair texture, body size & shape, etc. can be attributed to environmental influences in that region.
I was surprised by this assertion but found it not unreasonable, since we're told that we share 99% or however much of our DNA with chimps anyway, and all the difference lies in the remaining small percentage.
On "Good Morning America" this morning, there was a segment about the forensics involved in the recent case of the serial killer in Louisiana. They said that there is a very new test which can analyze DNA samples (like blood, I guess) and produce a racial breakdown of the sample donor: "This particular person is 8-10% African American, 5% Native American...."
Clearly, if you accept one of these two items, that makes the other completely bogus. I'm not sure where to look to check the accuracy.
Addendum: The news item features a Ray Wickenheiser, director of Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory. I found two articles, here and here.
I was surprised by this assertion but found it not unreasonable, since we're told that we share 99% or however much of our DNA with chimps anyway, and all the difference lies in the remaining small percentage.
On "Good Morning America" this morning, there was a segment about the forensics involved in the recent case of the serial killer in Louisiana. They said that there is a very new test which can analyze DNA samples (like blood, I guess) and produce a racial breakdown of the sample donor: "This particular person is 8-10% African American, 5% Native American...."
Clearly, if you accept one of these two items, that makes the other completely bogus. I'm not sure where to look to check the accuracy.
Addendum: The news item features a Ray Wickenheiser, director of Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory. I found two articles, here and here.