The problem with race-based scientific studies

My comments on a U.S. News and World Report article about a prostate-cancer study in the "Multiethnic Cohort" (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/09/01/adult-weight-gain-tied-to-prostate-cancer-risk.html):

This is a common problem in so many studies that try to find the effect of "race" on anything. Doing studies and reporting results in terms of race is a great way to look for data that will justify racist attitudes (which is what gives "race" any meaning it has, after all), but it is a horrible way to study anything scientifically. Genes, lifestyle, education level, socioeconomic status, proximity to a pollution source, etc., all lend themselves to scientific studies that will show "clear-cut" cause-and-effect relationships, when they exist. Race-based studies are used, in too many cases, to mask socioeconomic-based problems (which could be solved) as being race-based problems (which cannot). For example, a study of which races save most for retirement will likely show Asians saving more than whites, whites more than blacks, blacks more than Hispanics, and Hispanics more than Native Americans. The headlines will talk about a study showing that minorities are not saving enough for retirement. The proposed solution will be some kind of public-service announcement aimed at minorities to save more. If the same study were redone but, instead of reporting results by race, it reported them by households earning $0 to $9,999 per year, $10,000 to $19,999 per year, ..., $90,000 to $99,999 per year, $100,000 to ... etc., then you would see a "clear-cut" relationship between household income and retirement savings! It is not that "those Hispanics" are poor savers (and what can any of us do about their being Hispanic??), but that poor people are poor savers. As you see study after study that is reported by race, it becomes more and more clear that the results of those studies do little to advance science and do much to preserve the status quo.

Genes, environment, and lifestyle are legitimate subjects of scientific study in the search for knowledge about human diseases; race is not. Race is not a by-product of genes; it is a concept created by racism. Race is real only because racism is real, and race continues to exist only because racism does. Let's stop pretending that it has a scientific basis. That is so 19th century and this is the 21st.

My plea to the Obama campaign

Obama is in danger
of losing the election
if he cannot learn
to speak in ways voters can hear.

Frank Luntz subtitled a book:
"It's not what you say,
it's what people hear."

Please hire someone soon
who can help Obama learn
how to do this.

Please!

Thank you!

If elected, I will:
1. Lower your taxes.
2. Fight the terrorists where they are.
3. Make life better for your family.

If McCain is elected, he will:
1. Give more of your money to the rich.
2. Fight the terrorists where they are not.
3. Continue the Bush policies that have hurt your family.

i.e., sound bites, not dissertations

A Strong America

Does it really make the U.S. stronger to have a leader who stretches our military thin while draining the money out of our economy? Haven't we seen the results of that, and learned our lessons from it, already?

Will it all be made better when we cut taxes even more (fewer $$ coming in), stay in Iraq indefinitely (more $$ going out), and proceed to "Bomb, bomb, bomb,...bomb, bomb Iran" (the military stretched ever thinner)?

If ever there was a recipe for bankrupting the nation, destroying our defenses, and ruining our economy, this would be it.

Besides, when I think of clean, safe, alternative forms of energy, building 45 to 100 nuclear power plants is not the first thing that comes to mind. Though, just maybe, with enough molasses or vegetable oil it will finally be a snap to clean up toxic subterranean plumes of nuclear waste before they reach our major rivers and turn us all into the water-supply-poisoning victims defended by Erin Brockovich.

We are all a little bit different; we are all a lot the same.

Roma (gypsy) plea for humane treatment

Click on the drawing at: http://www.everyonegroup.com/EveryOne/MainPage/Entries/2008/5/24_Dear_Europe._By_Rebecca_Covaciu.html
to see one girl's plea against the mistreatment of gypsies that is becoming more common in Europe, especially in Italy.

Tomorrow Begins Today

The kind of day you will have tomorrow depends on how you prepare for it today.

Think about how you would like tomorrow to be as you decide what to do today. When tomorrow comes, you will be ever so glad you did.

Kindness

Kindness is free.