Valerie Horsley, Ophelia E Dadzie, Russell Hall, Nina G Jablonski
{"title":"Disentangling Race from Skin Color in Modern Biology and Medicine.","authors":"Valerie Horsley, Ophelia E Dadzie, Russell Hall, Nina G Jablonski","doi":"10.1016/j.jid.2024.08.029","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this review, we examine the taxonomies used to classify people, which influenced the development of the modern disciplines of biology and medicine, including dermatology, throughout the world. Early European scientists and physicians were intertwined with the social environment that created classifications and hierarchies of skin-color-based races, which were reinforced by prevailing political systems that supported colonial economic structures and, in many cases, chattel slavery. Even after genomic analysis of diverse human DNA sequences have revealed that systems of skin color-based racial and ethnic classification lacked biological meaning and were socially constructed, these classifications persist and are reinforced by census classifications and frameworks for comparisons in biomedicine in many parts of the world. The bodies of knowledge and practices that were built on these classifications did not reflect the observable biological diversity of people but the dominant cultural institutions and economic systems of their times. We provide actions for our modern institutions to reduce the underpinnings and ramifications of racial and ethnic classifications ultimately to improve biomedical research and medical care for all patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":94239,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of investigative dermatology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Journal of investigative dermatology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2024.08.029","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this review, we examine the taxonomies used to classify people, which influenced the development of the modern disciplines of biology and medicine, including dermatology, throughout the world. Early European scientists and physicians were intertwined with the social environment that created classifications and hierarchies of skin-color-based races, which were reinforced by prevailing political systems that supported colonial economic structures and, in many cases, chattel slavery. Even after genomic analysis of diverse human DNA sequences have revealed that systems of skin color-based racial and ethnic classification lacked biological meaning and were socially constructed, these classifications persist and are reinforced by census classifications and frameworks for comparisons in biomedicine in many parts of the world. The bodies of knowledge and practices that were built on these classifications did not reflect the observable biological diversity of people but the dominant cultural institutions and economic systems of their times. We provide actions for our modern institutions to reduce the underpinnings and ramifications of racial and ethnic classifications ultimately to improve biomedical research and medical care for all patients.
在这篇综述中,我们将研究用于对人进行分类的分类法,这些分类法影响了包括皮肤病学在内的现代生物学和医学学科在全世界的发展。早期的欧洲科学家和医生与社会环境交织在一起,社会环境创造了以肤色为基础的人种分类和等级制度,而支持殖民地经济结构的主流政治制度又强化了这些分类和等级制度,在许多情况下,这些制度还包括动产奴隶制。即使在对不同人类 DNA 序列进行基因组分析后发现,基于肤色的种族和人种分类系统缺乏生物学意义,是由社会构建的,但这些分类仍然存在,并在世界许多地方的人口普查分类和生物医学比较框架中得到强化。建立在这些分类基础上的知识体系和实践并不反映可观察到的人的生物多样性,而是反映了当时占主导地位的文化机构和经济体系。我们为我们的现代机构提供了减少种族和民族分类的基础和影响的行动,最终改善所有患者的生物医学研究和医疗服务。