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Racial Biology and Medical Misconceptions.

groups described as “Blacks” and “Whites” to three groups of “White” people: participants with no medical training, medical students at the University of Virginia (UVA), and UVA residents. Participants were asked to determine whether statements such as “Blacks’ skin is thicker than Whites’” were true or false; in this example, 58% of the lay public and 25 to 42% of the UVA medical students and residents responded “true.” The study showed that multiple false beliefs were shared by the public and medical trainees, and it received widespread acclaim for bringing attention to this problem. A closer reading of the article, however, reveals the true depth of the challenge: throughout the introduction and discussion, the terms “Black” and “White” are used as if they referred to true biologic entities, not the socially defined groups these terms actually identify. Therein lies the largest racial misconception still operative in the medical community: socially defined races continue to be viewed as if they are accurate reflections of biologic variation within our species (see box for further reading). Socially defined racial categories rely on several characteristics in addition to genetic ancestry, including physical appearance, culture, language, and religion. They are historically contextual, such that definitions of “Blackness” in America vary by region and over time: in 1910, in Alabama you were defined as Negro if you had a single great-grandparent of African ancestry, whereas in Michigan, two great-grandparents was the rule. In the Caribbean, any European ancestry at all was enough to define someone as White. Native American “race” is defined by the cultural criterion of membership in a tribe; race can change according to affiliation. In the 20th century, biologicanthropologic and populationgenetic analyses of human variation demonstrated conclusively that anatomically modern humans do not have biologic races. Since human biologic variation is driven by genetic drift (random variation in allele frequency associated with ancestral lineages) and uncorrelated selection pressures, physical traits cannot be used to delineate racial groups. Traits such as skin color, tooth size, bone density, presence of hemoglobin S, and craniofacial measurements do not map to socially defined racial categories. Further complicating the issue of socially defined race is the challenge of population admixture: owing to chattel slavery and colonialism in America, persons Racial Biology and Medical Misconceptions