Race and Dna
Bridgman 1
John Bridgman
Ms. Rude
English 102
20 January 2013
Investigative Essay Race is a highly thought out and controversial topic in today’s society. The topic of race has become immensely wide spread in the arguments pertaining to it. Race is not simply a matter of the skin color, hair texture and facial features seen on a particular person anymore. In two readings from the English 102 Reader, “Does Race Exist?” by Michael J. Bamshad and “America: The Multinational Society” by Ishmael Reed, the arguments are regarding different topics regarding race, but they also have many similarities in the articles. The most dominant of the similarities discussed in each article seem to be the controversy of the ancestry of certain races. Bamshad’s article embraces the question of race, ancestry, medicine, and how they may be connected to each other. Bamshad’s article does not particularly take a side on how race and medicine go together, but he does do well in describing each side of the argument, and where they come from. One side of the argument on race and medicine is that race can solely be used as a determining factor in diagnosing certain medical conditions and prescribing different medications. With diseases in mind such as sickle cell anemia, this information sounds
Bridgman 2 logical and many people believe in it. Bramshad shows the opposite side of the argument however by mentioning research that was done by scientists from the University of North Carolina, University of Oxford and Loyola School of Medicine. “They cited a study showing that the rate of complications from type 2 diabetes varies according to race, even after adjusting for such factors as disparities in education and income.” (Bramshad 7) This shows that race is not necessarily a defining trait of medical problems, however research also shows that genetics can indeed accurately measure ancestry of a person of a certain race. “… we saw that two of the groups consisted only of
John Bridgman
Ms. Rude
English 102
20 January 2013
Investigative Essay Race is a highly thought out and controversial topic in today’s society. The topic of race has become immensely wide spread in the arguments pertaining to it. Race is not simply a matter of the skin color, hair texture and facial features seen on a particular person anymore. In two readings from the English 102 Reader, “Does Race Exist?” by Michael J. Bamshad and “America: The Multinational Society” by Ishmael Reed, the arguments are regarding different topics regarding race, but they also have many similarities in the articles. The most dominant of the similarities discussed in each article seem to be the controversy of the ancestry of certain races. Bamshad’s article embraces the question of race, ancestry, medicine, and how they may be connected to each other. Bamshad’s article does not particularly take a side on how race and medicine go together, but he does do well in describing each side of the argument, and where they come from. One side of the argument on race and medicine is that race can solely be used as a determining factor in diagnosing certain medical conditions and prescribing different medications. With diseases in mind such as sickle cell anemia, this information sounds
Bridgman 2 logical and many people believe in it. Bramshad shows the opposite side of the argument however by mentioning research that was done by scientists from the University of North Carolina, University of Oxford and Loyola School of Medicine. “They cited a study showing that the rate of complications from type 2 diabetes varies according to race, even after adjusting for such factors as disparities in education and income.” (Bramshad 7) This shows that race is not necessarily a defining trait of medical problems, however research also shows that genetics can indeed accurately measure ancestry of a person of a certain race. “… we saw that two of the groups consisted only of