What’s race got to do with it?

1. What’s 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 (BiDil’s 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 researcher’s 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 person’s behavior and only reflects the researcher’s 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?