Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego this week, is a topic plaguing many of its members: the recurring appropriation of the fields research in the name of white supremacy.
Sticking your neck out on political issues is difficult, said Jennifer Wagner, a bioethicist and president of the groups social issues committee, who had sought to convene a panel on the racist misuse of genetics and found little traction.
But the specter of the fields ignominious past, which includes support for the American eugenics movement, looms large for many geneticists in light of todays white identity politics. They also worry about how new tools that are allowing them to home in on the genetic basis of hot-button traits like intelligence will be misconstrued to fit racist ideologies.
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In recent months, some scientists have spotted distortions of their own academic papers in far-right internet forums. Others have fielded confused queries about claims of white superiority wrapped in the jargon of human genetics. Misconceptions about how genes factor into Americas stark racial disparities have surfaced in the nations increasingly heated arguments over school achievement gaps, immigration and policing.
Instead of long-discounted proxies like skull circumference and family pedigrees, according to experts who track the far-right, todays proponents of racial hierarchy are making their case by misinterpreting research on the human genome itself. And in debates that have largely been limited to ivory-tower forums, the scientists whose job is to mine humanitys genetic variations for the collective good are grappling with how to respond.
Studying human genetic diversity is easier in a society where diversity is clearly valued and celebrated right now, that is very much on my mind, said John Novembre, a University of Chicago evolutionary biologist who has taken to concluding his visiting seminars by illustrating how one of the fields textbook examples of natural selection has been adopted for illiberal ends.
One slide Dr. Novembre has folded into his recent talks depicts a group of white nationalists chugging milk at a 2017 gathering to draw attention to a genetic trait known to be more common in white people than others the ability to digest lactose as adults. It also shows a social media post from an account called Enter The Milk Zone with a map lifted from a scientific journal article on the traits evolutionary history.
To be continued in the next post, but before that, let's break down each bolded sentence.
1: White supremacists are hijacking genetic research talking points to spread their hateful ideaology.
2: New tools are helping to home in on genetic traits that may show how different aspects of the human mind develop depending on your DNA, which people are worried will be hijacked by racists to claim racial superiority over others, essentially vindicating their views with hard science.
3: Genetics papers and studies have been showing up on right-wing forums, reframed with racist language and connotations, which is gaining enough traction that other non-right people who are ignorant to these alterations think that this angle is being assumed by the scientists themselves.
4-5: Rather than the old pseudosciences like phrenology, the modern white supremacist movement are making their points of racial superiority by misconstruing the evolutionary traits of white people and other races. This is where the milk comes in, as white Europeans developed a mutation which allowed them to better process dairy well into adulthood - hence the title of the news article. White supremacists are chugging milk to show off the supposed genetic advantage of being able to digest dairy as an adult. ---
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