Reality Of Race

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The Reality of Race
There’s hardly any difference in the DNA of human races. That doesn’t mean, argues sociologist Troy Duster, that genomics research can ignore the concept By SALLY LEHRMAN
Race doesn’t exist, the mantra went. The DNA inside people with different complexions and hair textures is 99.9 percent alike, so the notion of race had no meaning in science. At a National HumanGenome Research Institute (NHGRI) meeting five years ago, geneticists were all nodding in agreement. Then sociologist Troy Duster pulled a forensics paper out of his briefcase. It claimed that criminologists could find out whether a
suspect was Caucasian, Afro-Caribbean or Asian Indian merely by analyzing three sections of DNA. “It was chilling,” recalls Francis S. Collins, director of theinstitute. He had not been aware of DNA sequences that could identify race, and it shocked him that the information can be used to investigate crimes. “It stopped the conversation in its tracks.” In large part thanks to Duster, Collins and other geneticists have begun grappling with forensic, epidemiological and pharmacogenomic data that raise the question of race at the DNA level. The NHGRI now routinelyincludes experts from the social disciplines to assist in guiding research priorities and framing the results for the public. “The complexities of the DNA sequence require not just simplistic statements about similarities between groups but a full appreciation of history, anthropology, social science and politics,” Collins has realized. “Duster is a person that rather regularly gets tapped on theshoulder and asked for help.” The urbane 66-year-old Duster, who splits his time between appointments at the University of California at Berkeley and New York University, examines how the public absorbs news about genetics into existing beliefs and how those perceptions also shape the use of genetic sequencing, DNA probes and other molecular techniques. Those techniques have revealed that race isminor at the DNA level. The genetic differences between any two randomly selected individuals in one socially recognized population account for 85 percent of the variation one might find between people of separate populations. Put another way, the genetic difference between two individuals of the same race can be greater than those between individuals of different races— table sugar may look likesalt, but it has more similarities with corn syrup. But genetics cannot prove that race doesn’t exist, Duster explains. No amount of logic will erase the concept or destroy the disparities that arise from it, because people use race to sort their social groupings and to deFEBRUARY 2003

TROY DUSTER: THINKING ABOUT GENES
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Grandson of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, newspaper publisher,muckraker and antilynching crusader. “The King of Coolocity,” says Harry G. Levine of Queens College, City University of New York, because like a disciplined musician Duster combines seriousness, virtuoso skill, grace, balance and a relaxed playfulness in his work (he is a jazz aficionado). Current worry: “It is almost inevitable that a research agenda will surface to try to find patterns of allelefrequencies and then create computergenerated profiles of different types of criminals.”
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fine their social and economic interactions. Moreover, they do man genome research, Duster urged the NIH and the Departso in ways that have significant biological consequences. Duster ment of Energy to challenge The BellCurve, the 1994 best-sellrecently helped to draft a 15-page statement for the American er that argued that race correlated with intelligence. Government Sociological Association showing how race persists as a factor in officials held up a response for eight months, convinced that the disparities in health and other areas of life. “You cannot just get nonexistence of race at the genome level spoke for...