What

1
Whats race got to do with it?

• By Jerry Adler

2
Overview

• Q Are there biological differences between
  racial groups or is race a social construction?
• Discussion of the genetic differences between
  racial groups has been limited
• Longstanding fear that comparisons would end up
  reflecting poorly on one or more groups
• Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin made the
  claim that the only genetic differences are
  between individuals
• Recently, discussion of genetic differences in
  race have appeared in the medical field

3
Overview

• The drug BiDil has been proven to treat heart
  failure in blacks but no other race
• People were outraged by the idea of promoting a
  drug targeted at a single race
• Questions the idea of race as a social
  construction
• Q Is something like this (BiDils discovery) a
  valid argument for a biological difference in
  race or could this be attributed to other
  factors?
• Lack of advertisement and high cost have limited
  access to BiDil
• 750,000 blacks have heart failure
• Only 3 of patients who could use BiDil use it

4
Overview

• Other studies have found that BiDil is the only
  drug that is useful for a single race
• Timothy Caulfield the idea of race is not very
  useful biologically
• "Someone whose ancestors came from Nigeria is
  very different from a descendant of Kenyans, but
  if the two of them are walking down the sidewalk
  in New York, they're both black."
• Research that has reduced us down to racial
  categories will eventually reduce us down to
  individual variations
• We will no longer be white or Asian or African,
  or even Northern European, Ashkenazi, Japanese or
  East African we will be who we are, each one of
  us.

5
The Meaning of Race in Psychology and How to
Change Itby Helms, Jernigan, and Mascher

• Race has no conceptual meaning and should not be
  used as an independent variable in research
• There are no procedures to create racial
  categories therefore a researchers idea of race
  cannot be challenged
• Psychologists should study race as simply a
  social construction and instead look at culture
  for group traits
• Race does not provide any information about a
  persons behavior and only reflects the
  researchers beliefs
• There are no standard attributes that all members
  of a particular race possess
• Race is not naturally occurring since
  psychological researchers can reassign race based
  on sample size needs
• Ex races can be separated or lumped together
  under the term minorities if necessary
• Researchers often fail to provide empirical
  explanations for why there are differences in
  races when testing various measures (i.e. test
  scores)
• This allows them to draw whatever conclusions
  they choose
• Psychologists are using practices similar to
  racial profiling
• Membership in an arbitrary racial category
  predicts individual behavior
• Q Do you agree that race is not a valid
  independent variable to use in psychological
  research?