Paradigm Lost: Race, Ethnicity, and the Search for a New Population Taxonomy |
Paradigm Lost: Race, Ethnicity, and the Search for a New Population Taxonomy
American Journal of Public Health
Volume 91, Number 7 (July 2001)
pages 1049-1056
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.91.7.1049
Gerald M. Oppenheimer, Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently recommended that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reevaluate its employment of “race,” a concept lacking scientific or anthropological justification, in cancer surveillance and other population research. The IOM advised the NIH to use a different population classification, that of “ethnic group,” instead of “race.” A relatively new term, according to the IOM, “ethnic group” would turn research attention away from biological determinism and toward a focus on culture and behavior.
This article examines the historically central role of racial categorization and its relationship to racism in the United States and questions whether dropping “race” from population taxonomies is either possible or, at least in the short run, preferable. In addition, a historical examination of “ethnicity” and “ethnic group” finds that these concepts, as used in the United States, derive in part from race and immigration and are not neutral terms; instead, they carry their own burden of political, social, and ideological meaning.
Read the entire article here.
Tags: American Journal of Public Health, Gerald M. Oppenheimer, Gerald Oppenheimer