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Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism
The concept of “race” emerged in the 1600s with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, justifying slavery; it has been used to justify exploitation, denigration and decimation. Since then, despite contrary scientific evidence, a deeply-rooted belief has taken hold that “race,” indicated by, e.g., skin colo...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452910/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34557466 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.689462 |
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author | Braveman, Paula Parker Dominguez, Tyan |
author_facet | Braveman, Paula Parker Dominguez, Tyan |
author_sort | Braveman, Paula |
collection | PubMed |
description | The concept of “race” emerged in the 1600s with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, justifying slavery; it has been used to justify exploitation, denigration and decimation. Since then, despite contrary scientific evidence, a deeply-rooted belief has taken hold that “race,” indicated by, e.g., skin color or facial features, reflects fundamental biological differences. We propose that the term “race” be abandoned, substituting “ethnic group” while retaining “racism,” with the goal of dismantling it. Despite scientific consensus that “race” is a social construct, in official U.S. classifications, “Hispanic”/”Latino” is an “ethnicity” while African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and European American/White are “races.” There is no scientific basis for this. Each grouping reflects ancestry in a particular continent/region and shared history, e.g., the genocide and expropriation of Indigenous peoples, African Americans' enslavement, oppression and ongoing disenfranchisement, Latin America's Indigenous roots and colonization. Given migrations over millennia, each group reflects extensive genetic admixture across and within continents/regions. “Ethnicity” evokes social characteristics such as history, language, beliefs, customs. “Race” reinforces notions of inherent biological differences based on physical appearance. While not useful as a biological category, geographic ancestry is a key social category for monitoring and addressing health inequities because of racism's profound influence on health and well-being. We must continue to collect and analyze data on the population groups that have been racialized into socially constructed categories called “races.” We must not, however, continue to use that term; it is not the only obstacle to dismantling racism, but it is a significant one. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8452910 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84529102021-09-22 Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism Braveman, Paula Parker Dominguez, Tyan Front Public Health Public Health The concept of “race” emerged in the 1600s with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, justifying slavery; it has been used to justify exploitation, denigration and decimation. Since then, despite contrary scientific evidence, a deeply-rooted belief has taken hold that “race,” indicated by, e.g., skin color or facial features, reflects fundamental biological differences. We propose that the term “race” be abandoned, substituting “ethnic group” while retaining “racism,” with the goal of dismantling it. Despite scientific consensus that “race” is a social construct, in official U.S. classifications, “Hispanic”/”Latino” is an “ethnicity” while African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and European American/White are “races.” There is no scientific basis for this. Each grouping reflects ancestry in a particular continent/region and shared history, e.g., the genocide and expropriation of Indigenous peoples, African Americans' enslavement, oppression and ongoing disenfranchisement, Latin America's Indigenous roots and colonization. Given migrations over millennia, each group reflects extensive genetic admixture across and within continents/regions. “Ethnicity” evokes social characteristics such as history, language, beliefs, customs. “Race” reinforces notions of inherent biological differences based on physical appearance. While not useful as a biological category, geographic ancestry is a key social category for monitoring and addressing health inequities because of racism's profound influence on health and well-being. We must continue to collect and analyze data on the population groups that have been racialized into socially constructed categories called “races.” We must not, however, continue to use that term; it is not the only obstacle to dismantling racism, but it is a significant one. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-09-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8452910/ /pubmed/34557466 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.689462 Text en Copyright © 2021 Braveman and Parker Dominguez. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Public Health Braveman, Paula Parker Dominguez, Tyan Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism |
title | Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism |
title_full | Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism |
title_fullStr | Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism |
title_full_unstemmed | Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism |
title_short | Abandon “Race.” Focus on Racism |
title_sort | abandon “race.” focus on racism |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452910/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34557466 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.689462 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT bravemanpaula abandonracefocusonracism AT parkerdomingueztyan abandonracefocusonracism |