Anthropology: From Bones to the Human Genome

Race is an interminable subject of controversy. Nevertheless, people do differ and once were classified on the basis of skin color. With the advent of genetic markers, and more recently DNA differences, with myriad intragroup variability, many geneticists view race as an anachronism. Unfortunately, prejudice permeates human classifications. In the United States, a black mother cannot have a white baby, but a white mother can have a black baby. An African American could be in one of 40 categories in Brazil; in South Africa be classified black, coloured, or white; but in the Middle East be perceived as a member of a local population. In the early 1970s, African Americans were selectively tested for sickle hemoglobin and discriminated against in sports, employment, and health and life insurance as a result of misinformation distributed by the federal government and African American community programs. The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (supported by the U.S. Department of Energy) was recently sued for selectively testing African Americans for sickle hemoglobin and syphilis.