2min chapter

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Why You Can't Tell Your Race From A DNA Test

Short Wave

CHAPTER

The Dangers of Reference Populations

A reference population is a cluster of individuals who have their DNA sequence from some geographic place. Africa, Asia and Europe are not biological units, right? They're not even single geo-biological patterns or areas or habitats or ecologies; they are geo-political. So the danger in these tests is reifying that. There is no gene for race because race doesn't come from biology. It comes from racism.

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