Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the 21st Century

401 Pages·2011·2.1 MB·English

by  Dorothy Roberts

FATAL INVENTION
also by dorothy roberts
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction,
and the Meaning of Liberty
Shattered Bonds:
The Color of Child Welfare
FATAL INVENTION
How Science, Politics, and Big Business
Re- create Race in the Twenty- fi rst Century
Dorothy Roberts
© 2011 by Dorothy Roberts
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form,
without written permission from the publisher.
Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions
Department, The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013.
Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2011
Distributed by Perseus Distribution
library of congress cataloging- in- publication data
Roberts, Dorothy.
Fatal invention : how science, politics, and big business re-create race in the
twenty-fi rst century / Dorothy Roberts.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59558-495-3 (hc)
1. Race—Social aspects. 2. Race—Political aspects. 3. Race—Economic
aspects. 4. Physical anthropology. 5. Human population genetics. 6. Genomics.
I. Title.
GN269.R64 2011
305.8—dc22
2011012830
The New Press was established in 1990 as a not- for- profi t alternative to the large,
commercial publishing h ouses currently dominating the book publishing industry.
The New Press operates in the public interest rather than for private gain,
and is committed to publishing, in innovative ways, works of educational,
cultural, and community value that are often deemed insuffi ciently profi table.
www .thenewpress .com
Composition by Westchester Book Composition
Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
For my parents, Iris and Robert Roberts,
who taught me that there is only one human race.

Contents
Preface ix
PART I: BELIEVING IN RACE IN THE GENOMIC AGE
1
1. The Invention of Race 3
2. Separating Racial Science from Racism 26
PART II: THE NEW RACIAL SCIENCE
55
3. Redefi ning Race in Gen e tic Terms 57
4. Medical Stereotyping 81
5. The Allure of Race in Biomedical Research 104
6. Embodying Race 123
PART III: THE NEW RACIAL TECHNOLOGY
147
7. Pharmacoethnicity 149
8. Color-C oded Pills 168
9. Race and the New Biocitizen 202
10. Tracing Racial Roots 226
PART IV: THE NEW BIOPOLITICS OF RACE
259
11. Gen e tic Surveillance 261
12. Biological Race in a “Postracial” America 287
Conclusion: The Crossroads 309
Ac know ledg ments 313
Notes 317
Index 372

Preface
The principal human races presumably emerged as the populations of each
continent responded to different evolutionary pressures.
—Nicholas Wade, “A New Look at Race and Natural Selection,”
New York Times, April 2, 2009.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved BiDil, a drug for the
treatment of heart failure in self- identifi ed black patients, representing a step
toward the promise of personalized medicine.
—FDA News Release, June 23, 2005.
To chip away at an overwhelming bud get defi cit, Miami’s public hospital sys-
tem stopped paying for kidney dialysis for the indigent this week, offi cials said,
leaving some patients to rely on emergency rooms for their life-s ustaining
treatments.
—Kevin Sack, “Hospital Cuts Dialysis Care for the Poor in Miami,”
New York Times, January 8, 2010.
In the agency’s confi dential fi les was a jail video showing Mr. Bah face down in
the medical unit, hands cuffed behind his back, just before medical personnel
sent him to a disciplinary cell. The tape shows him crying out repeatedly in his
native Fulani, “Help, they are killing me!”
—Nina Bernstein, “Offi cials Obscured Truth of Migrant Deaths in Jail,”
New York Times, January 10, 2010.