From Bob Muirhead
Robert Sternberg asserts that race is a socially constructed concept, not a biological one (27 October, p 24). Such politically correct assertions serve only to inhibit potentially useful research into the various manifestations of humanity.
Certain human groups have obviously different biological attributes, such as skin colour, eye shape, ability to metabolise ethanol, susceptibility to malaria and athletic performance. No doubt there are many others that we have not yet discovered – and may never discover if researchers are put off by fear of being tainted racist when trying to investigate these differences.
Sternberg says that we do not refer to differently coloured moths as races because “we are less interested in creating social classes for moths than for people”. Scientists may not call the moths races, but they might call them subspecies. He repeats the oft-heard point that there are more genetic differences within a race than between them, and that race therefore has no biological meaning.
Have any comparative studies been done among animal subspecies? Is there more genetic difference, for example, among Bengal tigers than between Bengal and Siberian tigers? And, if there is, will we stop calling them different subspecies? If not, then why shouldn’t we classify humans this way? The problem, I fear, is not biology, but that “differences” equate to “inequalities”. Different just means different.
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Ever since Charles Darwin wrote, we know that words like species, subspecies, varieties and races have no definite meaning, but are used to describe a spectrum of variations in living creatures. You can decide not to use any of those words, if you don’t like the consequences of using them. However, it is certainly not wrong to use them as they are a useful way of describing this biological variation.
Sternberg, however, mentions that there is more difference within the so-called races than between them and concludes that the word “race” is inappropriate.
Saint Genest Lachamp, Ardèche, France
Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
