The constraints of racialization: How classification and valuation hinder scientific research on human variation
The constraints of racialization: How classification and valuation hinder scientific research on human variation
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DOI：
10.1002/ajpa.24264
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发表时间：
2021-03-05
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Lasisi，Tina
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lasisi，Tina
人类的生物学变异历来是通过种族化的透镜来研究的。尽管人们普遍不再使用明显的种族术语，但用于描述和理解人类变异的潜在种族化框架仍然存在。即使在相对较新的人类学和生物医学工作中，我们也可以观察到这种种族思维的明显表现。本文展示了如何分类和估值是两个具体的过程，促进种族化和阻碍试图超越这种框架。分类引起的偏见扭曲了对表型变异的描述，错误地将欧洲人群描绘成比其他人群更易变。隐性评估与分类同时发生，并在没有客观生物学基础的情况下对某些表型变异产生优效性/劣效性叙述。种族化的偏见是一个长期存在的障碍，源于在明确的种族范式下发展起来的科学知识的继承。这也是一种内在的认知扭曲，在一个种族化不可避免的世界里，这种扭曲是通过社会化培养出来的。虽然这是一个不可克服的挑战，但这并不是一个不可逾越的障碍，这种偏见可以通过对过去工作的批判性评估，积极纳入边缘化的观点，以及直接对抗强制执行种族主义范式的体制结构来减轻。
Human biological variation has historically been studied through the lens of racialization. Despite a general shift away from the use of overt racial terminologies, the underlying racialized frameworks used to describe and understand human variation still remain. Even in relatively recent anthropological and biomedical work, we can observe clear manifestations of such racial thinking. This paper shows how classification and valuation are two specific processes which facilitate racialization and hinder attempts to move beyond such frameworks. The bias induced by classification distorts descriptions of phenotypic variation in a way that erroneously portrays European populations as more variable than others. Implicit valuation occurs in tandem with classification and produces narratives of superiority/inferiority for certain phenotypic variants without an objective biological basis. The bias of racialization is a persistent impediment stemming from the inheritance of scientific knowledge developed under explicitly racial paradigms. It is also an internalized cognitive distortion cultivated through socialization in a world where racialization is inescapable. Though undeniably challenging, this does not present an insurmountable barrier, and this bias can be mitigated through the critical evaluation of past work, the active inclusion of marginalized perspectives, and the direct confrontation of institutional structures enforcing racialized paradigms.