A Quick Note...
Before we begin delving into the complicated relationship between race and science in historical and modern America, we will preface that the Vaccines4Good blog content will begin branching out to cover public health topics more broadly from here on out, while still maintaining a strong emphasis on vaccine-related content.
Scientific Racism
To begin examining the intersection of race and medicine, we start with the concept of race itself--scientifically proven to be a construct of our imagination. In fact, genomes between racial groups are nearly (99.4-99.9%) identical. Dating back as early as 1619, the notion of scientific racism was born.
Many of these supposedly concrete theories relied upon science to justify racial distinctions and inequities. The idea of “polygenism” arose in the 19th century to explain a perceived white superiority over other races, indicating that every ethnicity constituted its own species. Early studies from the 20th century also cited data collected on the incarceration rates of black Americans to justify the moral superiority of white people.
Other theories falsely conflate biology with race. One popular approach preached that breeding and marriage between races was unnatural and even dangerous: 19th century physicians claimed that ‘mulatto’ mixed peoples were more susceptible to certain diseases and could become sterile. This particular theory only intensified over time into the next century, when scientists like Charles Benedict Davenport wrote that marriage between races that were “too far” apart could result in disastrous genetic results (for instance, one tall and one short parent might produce offspring with mis-sized organs). This explanation of race, of course, is completely false, as modern biology demonstrates the genetic process of recombination prevents the “disharmonies” Davenport described.
In addition, some theories have claimed that racial prejudice was merely an essential, natural phenomenon to maintain the purity of a certain group of genes by keeping them isolated. However, the most common explanation of science in support of racial discrimination relied upon the isolation of certain character traits.
These theories attempted to establish connections between qualities (ie aggression, submission, determination, obstinance) as biologically ingrained in certain races. A glorified form of stereotyping, this concept manifested into concrete policies: the Nordic people once believed themselves to be justified in their conquest of other races due to their innate assertiveness, whereas poor intelligence tests indicated that Southern and Eastern Europeans were unfit to rule.
While these biological justifications for racial discrimination have existed for centuries, in more recent times they have been formally denounced. After World War II and Nazi eugenics, several international bodies, including the United Nations, issued statements agreeing that characteristics could not be scientifically tied to race.
Yet still, the horrific remnants of scientific racism linger. Thus, it is vitally important to learn this nation’s complicated history with science and race in order to understand the context of modern racism in America, and consequently how we might untangle its contradictions.
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