James Shreeve "Terms of Estrangement"

％

1. Shreeve's Main Points

 "Race is a small but volatile word." because it does not have the very clear definition. Moreover, race has important role in identifying people but it has unclear definition.  First, the problem concerning on race is because we, human, use the word from the cultural points of view. That is why race can be very changeable, for example, in the U.S. of the early 1970s people changer their racial group from one year to next year because of their sentimental and social reasons. Second, the physical differences are clearly apparent. But each ethnic group has gradual differences from one to another. This is the one of the main reason why we cannot use the term like the bushel-basket to divide people into some racial group. As for some medical researchers, race is very useful term because people have illness tendency based on their “race”. However, that is not based on racial and genetic differences among people but that is based on their social status, which is easily influenced by their race. Shreeve raise questions, “What race mean?” and “Do we need to use the term of race?”

2. Reaction

Race is very ambiguous. According to a study done in 1977 by a geneticist of Harvard, Richard Lewontin, only does 6 percent gene difference make physical appearance different, in other words 6 percent gene difference makes race. The fact, only 6 percent gene difference decide their race, seems ridiculous to me. However, 6 percent gene difference is surely exist; physical appearance differences are surely exist. How to deal with this problem?

I think the scientists had not better use the word, “race”. Because scientific reasoning has power to make people believe that the reason is true. That process makes racism. So I think Scientists should refrain from using the word without any clear definition.

*You can read Shreeve's this article on discovermagazin.com.