Is DNA Research Giving New Life to the Idea That Race Exists?

Ever since scientists discovered "the secret of life" embedded in our DNA a half century ago, the study of human genes has sparked debate about the nature of race. The question seemed to be settled in the early 1970s when biologist Richard Lewontin compared variations in genes within and among different population groups. His conclusion, that most human genetic variation did not fall along racial lines, was widely accepted. At the molecular level, human beings are more alike than different. Repeat experiments confirmed this finding, and many experts embraced the knowledge that the racial categories that have long divided people and justified racist oppression represented social and political beliefs rather than biological truths.

But the notion that race is real as a biological fact did not die. Even after research teams who identified and sequenced all 20,000-25,000 genes as part of the historic Human Genome Project declared in 2000 that race was not a valid scientific concept, the counterclaim resurfaced. Ironically, the more science has delved into the intricacies of our DNA, the more experts have diverged on the question of race. The dispute, which reverberates mostly in the pages of academic journals and in the halls of some of our most prestigious institutions, could have negative repercussions in the real world for communities of color. From criminal justice to medical research and genealogy, the lack of clarity on the true nature of race poses risks, including the risk that, as a society, we might start believing in essentialist notions of race again.

While acknowledging that science is often used for positive purposes, including ones that benefit communities of color, social justice advocates must remain vigilant. All technologies, including new genetic technologies, develop in a political, economic and social context, says Patricia Berne of the Center for Genetics and Society, a public affairs nonprofit based in Oakland, California. "The broader political left has not really grappled with the ways these technologies affect our claim to resources, our claim to rights, and the well-being of our communities," she notes. Before race is resurrected and redefined by biologists, geneticists and biotech firms, social justice advocates must grapple with the issues and add their voices to the debate.

Forensics

This spring, the New York Times published a startling article entitled "The DNA 200," a brief piece with a collection of thumbnail-size photos of former inmates who had been released on the basis of DNA evidence. A quick survey of the images was compelling -- most of the faces were Black and brown men who had spent an average of 12 years behind bars for crimes they had not committed. Each face and each exonerated individual represented a victory for the Innocence Project, an 18-year-old legal advocacy group that works to reopen old cases and change lives with the help of DNA evidence. For these men, DNA analysis helped prove, without a shadow of doubt, that genetic material uncovered at a crime scene did not match their own. Science was an instrument of justice.

But just as easily, DNA can be turned into a high-tech tool for racial profiling, although on shakier scientific grounds. It led to the 2004 conviction of an African American suspected of multiple serial murders in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Initially, police sought a white suspect, based on eyewitness testimony and the assumption that most serial killers are Caucasian. But the case took a turn when a technology firm, DNA Print Genomics, offered to analyze the sample from the crime scene. Their test concluded that the suspect was "85 percent sub-Saharan African and 15 percent Native American" and therefore medium- to dark-skinned black, not white. It appeared to match a sample given to police voluntarily by Derrick Todd Lee, a man with a history of legal troubles. Lee's conviction and death sentence were based in part on a method that critics say is at best a prediction of geographical ancestry -- not a 100-percent certainty.