The article Beyond genetic race: Biocultural insights into the causes of racial health disparities by Kuzawa and Gravlee points out that genetic component cannot be used to adequately explain people’s health disparities. All racial perceptions are structured by individual societies and passed down the generations. Race according to Kuzawa and Gravlee (2016, p. 4), is not genetically grounded but a worldwide perception, although it may have some biological impacts on individuals. Environment according to these authors, shape people’s health patterns and levels of immunity, due to stressors and common diets.
Case study one in the article attempts to find out the reasons for high rates of hypertension cases among African Americans. The research concludes that as the social, economic status of African Americans improve the blood pressure increases while for the NativeAmericans, the higher the social, economic status, the lower the blood pressure. In the second case study, the article records that discrimination and racism are a major cause for low birth weights for the non-native Americans. Fetal growth and prematurity affect a person’s health up to adulthood.
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Undoubtedly, as Kuzawa, and Gravlee (2016, p.16) state, genes do not define a person’s racial identity, but it is rather it is the social, economic, and political factors that create differences due to varying opportunities and stressors. Biological differences, therefore, are created through modification of early developmental biology and the process of wear and tear. This analysis is sufficient to prove that disparities in health do not depend on race. This is because the research proves that human variations do not occur in discrete packages but gradual gradients.
References
Kuzawa, C. W., & Gravlee, C. C. (2016). Beyond genetic race: bio cultural insights into the causes of racial health disparities. New Directions in Bicultural Anthropology , 89-102.
