People cannot be contained by race
Susan L. Sprecher
Hesburgh Library staff
I have always thought that the American Association of Anthropology's stance to "discredit any decisive notion of race," as cited in Anthony Pagliarini's letter Tuesday, is misinterpreted if it is used to argue that there are no definable genetic differences among human populations. This seems to be a particularly blinkered attitude in an era that celebrates diversity and values biodiversity.
When I was in graduate school, I worked with an anthropologist who argued forcefully that there was no such thing as race. This was a woman who had been adopted as an infant and never knew her birth parents. At the time I met her, her husband worked as an advocate with American Indian groups and one day my colleague told me something that she was obviously very proud of.
She said that when she met the women in the tribal association, they told her, "You look so much like us. We really think you were one of the children who were given up for adoption out of the tribe when they were babies. We think you are one of us."
My friend had a new-found sense of belonging and being related to a group and I was happy for her. I forbore to mention that she had been recognized as probably being part of that group on the basis of her racial characteristics. These women had accepted that my colleague was one of themselves because after evaluating her outward physical appearance they concluded that she was genetically close to them. She was related, she was family.
Around the world, humans group themselves into populations whose members are more related to each other and genetically alike than they are to members of other populations. Like families grown large, these racial entities are not always sharply defined, but they are no less real.
They are no less worthy of consideration in the current arena of bioethical debate. And after all, how do we celebrate diversity unless we affirm that it exists?
Susan L. Sprecher
Hesburgh Library staff
South Bend, Ind.
April 4, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Thursday, April 5, 2001
