Race, Biology, and Health

Discussion Questions

Graves, J.L. (2005). Chapter 1: How Race Refutes Our Race Myths. In: The Race Myth. Penguin:
New York, NY.

1. The chapter begins by author Joseph Graves describing the discoveries associated with the
Human Genome Project. To review from Lecture 4, what was the Human Genome Project and
what are some of the important discoveries?

The human genome project was a research project that wanted to determine the DNA sequence of the entire
human genome. Some of the important discoveries made were there are fewer genes in the human genome, it
consist on non-coding sequences, also it discovered that most of our traits are complex.

2. What did Craig Venter (CEO of one of the corporations that mapped the human genome) mean
when he said “race is not a scientific concept” and that we are all essentially identical twins at the
level of the genome?

What Craig Venter meant by “race is not a scientific concept” is that you cannot identify one’s race by
looking at the human genome because the human genes are almost identical.

3. What is a subspecies in evolutionary biology?

Separation races of the same species that rose through geographical isolation.

4. What is genetic distance?

A measurement of how frequently the genetic messages for traits occur in population.

5. Why can’t humans be divided into subspecies?

There isn’t much genetic variation among the human species.

Gravlee, C.G, Dressler, W.W., & Bernard, H.R. (2005). Skin color, social classification, and blood
pressure in southeastern Puerto Rico. Am J Pub Health 95: 2191-2197.

1. Typically, the first paragraph of a scientific paper introduces a broad issue. What issue is
presented in the first paragraph of this paper?

The issues presented in the first paragraph of this paper is the people of African descent tend to show
patterns of higher blood pressure rates than others in the same society.

2. In the introduction, the authors present two competing explanations for why descendants of the
African Diaspora exhibit higher rates of hypertension. What are the two competing explanations?

Dark skin color is linked to a genetic predisposition from high blood pressure, and dark skin color is a
marker of subordinate social status that exposes people of darker skin to racial discrimination, poverty
and other stressors that are related to high blood pressure.

3. What is the purpose of the study? How do the authors measure the biological dimension of skin
color? How do the authors measure the cultural dimension of skin color?

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 The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between dark skin color and high blood
pressure. The researches measure the biological dimension of skin color by using a reflectance
spectrophotometry which provided a measurement of skin pigmentation. Measuring cultural dimension of
skin color, took several steps, the first required testing the assumptions that there is a shared cultural
model of skin color; then it requires an estimation of how skin color will be defined.

4. What are the main results of this study? What is the significance of these results?

The main results of this study show that people who were placed in the “Negro” category of skin color
showed higher systolic blood pressure, however the results do also indicate that skin color is not the cause
of SBP but socioeconomic status. The significance of the results are that environmental factors tend to
play a role in high blood pressure.

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