| No such thing as race in genetics BY GINNY LAPHAM At the annual meeting of the Baltimore-Washington Conference in June, the subject of race arose several times. In commenting on this issue, I will put on my genetics-education hat that I have worn professionally for the past 10 years. My critique concerns the use of the word race. Race was a word heard often and in many contexts during the conference session. That was intentional. It was part of getting ready for the repentance for racism service to be held at next years annual conference. It was also part of a recommendation, from both the Board of Ecumenical and Interreligious Life and the Commission on Religion and Race, that local churches participate in the Steps Toward Wholeness: Learning and Repentance study this year. The problem for me was that I did not hear the word race defined. Presumably everyone knows what race is. But do they? In the field of biology, in the study of genetics, there is no such thing as race. Ever since 1990, when scientists involved in the Human Genome Project began unraveling our genetic make-up the genes that make us who we are more and more evidence has evolved which claims that biologically there is no such thing as race. Any two people of the same sex have 99.9 percent of the same genes regardless of color of skin or ethnic origin. Population geneticists who have studied DNA samples of peoples of Asia, Africa, Europe and indigenous populations of the Americas have found that 85 percent of all genetic variability is within the four groups. Only 15 percent of genetic variability is between groups. Thats an important statistic: any two people of the same gender are 99.9 percent genetically the same. We are the same people biologically. The word race has been banned from genetics meetings and publications. If the word race is ever used, the user is quickly reminded that race does not exist. Once when presenting a study that had used the term race, I put the word in quotes, and even then, I was immediately reprimanded. Race does not exist from a biological or genetic perspective. Does this mean that racism does not exist? Of course not. Racism is alive and well in our society. It existed at annual conference, it is evident on Sunday mornings in most churches, it is so much part of who we are that we perpetuate it even unknowingly. But it is important to note that racism does not have a biological basis. It is a sociological, cultural and psychological concept or construct. If we understand that, it seems that we have a better chance of combating racism than if we think of ourselves as being divided by something called race. Let us acknowledge and celebrate our differences based on ethnicity, culture, geography, gender, profession or whatever, but let us understand that we are all the same biologically. We are one people. Virginia Lapham is a member of Dumbarton UMC, Washington, D.C. | 
Login/Register to leave comment