Racial Disparities in Healthcare and Sport

7/30/2019 Racial Disparities in Healthcare and Sport

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Racial Disparities in Healthcare and Sport

Within the modern worlds of healthcare and professional sport performance, theconcept of race as a genetic construction is often debated. Many believe that race is not

purely constructed from ones DNA, but from ones social, psychological and

physiological environments. Due to this postulation, racial disparities in the healthcareworld have anything to do with genetics. This idea crosses over into elite sportperformance. Although it is common for professional athletes to have some type of

genetic advantage that pushes them to the elite level, these genes are not necessarily

altered by an athletes race nor do his or her genes alter the athletes racial makeup.Scientist Charles Mills believes that race is a socially constructed concept. Rose

Brewer discusses Mills reasonings in her article Thinking Critically About Race and

Genetics. Mills sees race as a construction established by American societys legal and

constitutional orders (Brewer). If it is a social construction, then genetics have no impacton how ones race is determined. Brewer continues to explain that, Race is a modern

category invented by white male scientists in the era of modernity and instantiated

globally in the consciousness, social practices, and institutional interstices of WesternEuropean cultures, among countless others worldwide (Brewer). In short, race is a

contemporary concept that is embedded in social traditions and culturally learned

behaviors rather than in ones DNA.

More specifically, Samia Hurst of Geneva University Medical School inSwitzerland agrees with the notion that race is socially constructed. Hurst believes,

Race, inasmuch as the concept ought to be used at all, is a social concept, not a

biological onethere doesnt seem to be a single cluster of genes that fits withidentification within an ethnic group, let alone with disease risks as well (Wolinsky).

Hurst further asserts that race is not a biological or genetic concept; if anything, it is

cultural. She then continues to claim that because race is not biological, it does not have a

biological effect on a populations risk for certain diseases.A 1991 study additionally supports that race is not biological and has no genetic

ties to health disparities. Troy Duster writes about how Michael Klag and his colleagues

conducted a study that analyzed African-American skin colorings connection tohypertension. Klag found that the darker the skin coloring of an African-American, the

higher the rate of hypertension of said person. Duster discussed the explanation: Klag

argued that the correlation between skin color and hypertension was not biological orgenetic in origin, but biological in effect due to stress-related outcomes of reduced access

to valued social goods, such as employment, promotion, housing stock, etc. (Duster).

This is just one instance that demonstrates how ones environment can affect him

biologically and cause him to be more susceptible to health conditions rather thanspecific genes in his DNA sequence. Klags study reinforces the idea that race is a

socially constructed phenomenon.

Along with race being a social construction, many people carry perceptions of

others of certain races due to culturally learned stereotypes and behaviors. In 2000, vanRyn and Burke organized a study that analyzed how doctors viewed black patients

despite already knowing their income, education and personality traits. The two

discovered that, doctors rated black patients as less intelligent, less educated, morelikely to abuse drugs and alcohol, more likely to fail to comply with medical advice,


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more likely to lack social support, and less likely to participate in cardiac rehabilitation

than white patients (Unequal Treatment). These doctors have given into the

stereotypes that were created in a social environment. There are no genes that cause blackpeople to be less intelligent or more likely to ignore a doctors advice. Rather than genes

causing these issues, a black patients environment is a likely culprithistory has locked

many blacks and other minorities into living with limited access to education orhealthcare resources. The results demonstrate that there are disparities in healthcare dueto ones race, but these disparities arise from ones environment, not genes.

Aside from racial disparities in healthcare, similar disparities emerge in

professional sport performance as well. Such disparities are clearly expressed in Olympicrunning events. When watching the 2008 Beijing Olympic running events, a viewer

would notice that every single athlete in the final 100m race was black. Although it is not

rare for professional athletes have some type of genetic advantage when it comes to

performing, there is no race gene that allows for optimum performance. Robert A. Scottand Yannis P. Pitsiladis discuss how environmental factors influence east African

distance running success more than genetics. In Genotypes and Distance Running:

Clues from Africa, Scott and Pitsiladis assert, It is perhaps unlikely that east Africa isproducing unique genotypes that cannot be matched by those from other areas of the

world, but more likely that those in east Africa with an advantageous genotype realize

their advantage through having used it regularly (Scott and Pitsiladis). This argument

explores the idea that east African athletes are aware that they are particularly talented ata sport and they continue practicing because they are genetically suited for it. This does

not mean that all east Africans share a common gene that allows people of their race or

ethnicity to be successful at running; there is still no scientific evidence of such a gene.Later on in their article, Scott and Pitsiladis use the example of west and east

African runners to explain how race is a social construction and cannot be held

accountable for an athletes genetic makeup or success. They write, The notion of race,

therefore, is not an acceptable surrogate for genetics in assessing performance differencesbetween populations. The examples of west and east African athletes and their

dominance of track events have propagated the presumption of the genetically endowed

natural athlete (Scott and Pitsiladis). Although all ten world record holders for the mensmarathon times are held by only Kenyans and Ethiopians, they do not share a common

race gene that allows them to break such records. Spectators simply believe that Africans

are genetically suited to win based on their skin color. Many people think that becausethe athletes biological race will allow them to win; they do not realize that race is a

social construction and that they win mainly because of environmental factors.

A second reasonwhich has no connection to geneticsthat may cause black

athletes to have such great success in sport performance is the concept of stereotypethreat. Stereotype threat is when an athletes performance ability is affected by his or her

belonging to a group that is associated with certain stereotypes. Baker and Horton explore

the idea that black athletes are more successful in certain sports because many non-black

athletes give into the stereotype that the black athletes will be better than them (Bakerand Horton). They assert, the psychological edge this belief gives black athletes may be

the key to maintaining [athletic] superiority (Baker and Horton). When non-black

athletes think that they cannot outperform black athletes, the black athletes have all themore mental motivation to beat the non-black athletes. Stereotype threat has absolutely


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nothing to do with genetic advantagesan athletes attitude and mental state has a great

influence on how he or she will perform. In short, if a white American male submits to

the stereotype that a black Kenyan will beat him in the marathon event at the Olympicsbecause of past trends, the white athlete will go into the event unmotivated, underperform

and lose the race.

To conclude, race does affect healthcare and sport performance disparities, butones genetic makeup does not necessarily cause such racial disparities. At this point intime, there is not enough scientific research to back up the claim that ones race is

genetic. Experts like Mills, Hurst and Klag adhere to the idea that race is a socially

constructed concept and the environmental factors that go along with ones race are whattruly have an effect on someones experience with disease susceptibility, healthcare

experience and athletic performance ability.

Documents

Racial Disparities in Healthcare and Sport