"Race" or "ethnicity"

[Kevin Robert Dean]

Scientists Debate Role of Race 
The Associated Press, Thu 28 Jun 2001 

"http://www.worldscientist.com/?action=display&article=7981984&template=science/stories.txt&index=recent"

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The daughter of a white mother
and a black father, Veronica Keiffer has short, curly,
dark-brown hair, brown eyes and olive-brown skin
dusted with freckles. 

People have called her ``exotic,'' addressed her in
Spanish and asked to touch her hair. If Keiffer ever
forgets about race, she's soon reminded by someone
asking: ``What are you?'' 

To her, race is something that permeates life. But at
the California Childcare Health Program in Oakland,
where Keiffer works, her supervisor, Dr. Rahman
Zamani, wants to stop using the term ``race'' and
instead use ``ethnicity'' in staff training
discussions and newsletters. 

Their workplace debate is being echoed across the
country as scientists, academics and advocates
question race's role in research, medicine and data
collection by the government. 

Keiffer contends race is integral to shaping how
people view themselves and are treated by others. She
says downplaying it won't make it go away — it's
better confronted head-on. 

Zamani, who classifies himself as Afghan American,
believes ethnicity is more scientifically accurate and
that race is a broad, misleading term with no
biological basis. He argues that ethnicity allows for
more precise conversations about specific groups when
discussing child care and health issues — for
instance, talking about ``Chinese'' rather than
``Asians.'' 

While the 1990 Census allowed Americans to choose only
one of five race categories, the 2000 count let people
choose more than one of six categories, increasing the
possible number of race classifications to 63. 

But while those numbers highlight differences,
scientists who sequenced the human genome announced
last year that the DNA of human beings is 99.9 percent
alike, regardless of race. 

``This is proof positive that race is not a biological
concept,'' says Monique Mansoura, a policy analyst for
the National Human Genome Research Institute at the
National Institutes of Health. 

Some are advocating against doctors' habit of
beginning presentations by describing a patient's
race. 

In an article published this month in the journal
Family Medicine, Dr. Matthew Anderson and his
colleagues give an example of a presentation that
started out by describing a patient as a
''34-year-old, black, cocaine-using mom who just
delivered her 11th child prematurely.'' 

Anderson, an assistant professor at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in New York, argues that pairing
race with behavior perpetuates a stereotype that could
affect the medical care other black women receive. 

He and co-author Susan Moscou want patients to be
presented ``as non-judgmentally as possible. ``The
minute a person hears a person's black, Latino, white,
that already comes with a set of assumptions,'' says
Moscou, a family nurse practitioner at Montefiore
Medical Group in New York. 

The American Anthropological Association has
recommended eliminating the term ``race'' in the 2010
census. 

``The important issues between blacks and whites
really have to do with equality of opportunity and
access to health care and earning potential,'' says
biological anthropologist Jonathan Marks, an
association member. ``To talk about them as racial
issues makes it sound like biology is the root of the
problem.'' 

The Office of Management and Budget, which sets
government standards for collecting data, has said the
question of race likely will be revisited for the next
census. 

The American Sociological Association is working on a
race statement of its own. Troy Duster, a sociology
professor at New York University who is heading the
committee that will write it, says his group will be
``more sensitive to the realities we live with. It's
too easy to say, 'Let's just get rid of the
concept.''' 

Duster, who is working on an anthology of research
about race's role in science, says researchers across
the country are caught in a confusing contradiction. 

``On the one hand, they're saying the human genome
project tells us race is of no consequence and, on the
other hand, we see massive health disparities between
blacks and whites'' and other groups, Duster says. 

In California, backers of a 1996 initiative that ended
most government affirmative action programs are now
preparing for a new campaign to prohibit state and
local governments from classifying or sorting
students, contractors or employees by race or
ethnicity. 

``It's an intrusive inquiry on the part of government,
and government should have no business sorting or
separating people on the basis of race or ethnicity,''
says Kevin Nguyen, executive director of the American
Civil Rights Institute. 

For John Tateishi, executive director of the Japanese
American Citizens League, growing up in a government
detention camp and experiencing discrimination has
meant ``the distinction has always been race.'' 

Part of the challenge may be just figuring out how to
shape the debate. 

Charles Kamasaki, senior vice president of the
National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy
group, says he doesn't think any of the current terms
for discussing the concept really fit. 

``We still haven't found the language of discourse
about how to talk about these questions,'' he says,
``because they're all emotionally and politically
charged.'' 

——— 

On the Net: 

American Anthropological Association's comments on
race and ethnic standards:
http://www.ameranthassn.org/gvt/ombdraft.htm 


=====
Kevin Dean
Buffalo, NY
ICQ: 8616001
http://www.yaysoft.com

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