Conflation of the Biological into the Cultural Category of Race 28318th and 19th centuries. It remains to be seen whether this
genetics research will avoid creating false genetic types that
do not reflect the true nature of human variation. Recent
claims of race-specific drugs and vaccines that are based
on limited scientific data indicate that the social category
of race may again be interfering with our understanding
of the true nature of human genetic diversity.
To make matters worse, the confusion of social with
biological factors is frequently combined with prejudices
that then serve to exclude whole categories of people
from certain roles or positions in society. For example,
in colonial North America, a “racial” worldview, rooted
in the unequal power relations between the English or
Saxon “race” and the Irish or Celtic “race” in Europe, as-
signed American Indians and Africans imported as slaves
to perpetual low status. A supposed biological inferiorityHawaiian and Alaskan are far more restrictive. The Census
Bureau also asks people to identify Hispanic ethnicity, a cat-
egory that includes people who, in their countries of origin,
might be classified as Indio, Mestizo, or Ladino. The addi-
tion of categories for native Hawaiians, Middle Easterners,
and people who consider themselves multiracial does noth-
ing to improve the situation.
To compound the confusion, inclusion in one or an-
other of these categories is usually based on self-iden-
tification, which means that these are not biological
categories at all. The observation that the purported race
of an individual can vary over the course of his or her life-
time speaks to the fact that cultural forces shape the des-
ignation of membership in a particular racial category.
Similarly, genetics research in medicine is regularly
oversimplified according to the racial types defined in theThese skulls, from the genocide war memorial in Rwanda, record some of the horror that took place in this
Central African country in 1994. Over the course of only about a hundred days, a militia of the ruling Hutu
majority brutally murdered close to 1 million ethnic Tutsis. With clear genocidal intent, systematic orga-
nization, and intense speed, Hutu actions, resembling those of the Nazi regime, remind us that genocide
is far from a thing of the past. The global effects of the Rwandan genocide have been massive. Millions of
Rwandans, both refugees and killers, now live in neighboring regions, disrupting the stability of these states.
Through the United Nations and individual governments, the international community has recognized that it
failed to act to prevent this genocide and collectively has taken steps toward maintaining peace in the region.
The parallels between Rwanda and current conflicts in Congo, Burundi, and Sudan are chilling.© blickwinke/Alamy