Dividing us by Blood: How Science Might Separate Us
Before this discussion, I didn’t quite understand the human genome project before this talk, but generally defined, it considered that all humans were equal when it came down to bloodwork. However, different studies throughout the year have attempted to show that different ethnicities have different blood. Studies such as the one done on Indian Blood, Henrietta Lacks, and the pharmaceutical company who directed their pill towards African American people have divided the human race even more.
A study done by scientist have concluded that Indians had a higher percent of B blood. This was a stark contrast from the genome project which argued that our blood is what made us equal. However, this finding disapproves this. Although it might be true, this might cause tension between Indians and their counterparts who also live in the area. One might have the opportunity to believe that one race is better than the next simply because their blood makeup is different. This will be the cause of much tension between the two.
The Henrietta Lacks story is very personal to me being a black woman. I believe that the way doctors went about collecting blood samples is what caused a big division. Also, at the time there was already high tensions between Blacks and Whites. So, for doctors to collect samples without even getting the verbal or written consent of Henrietta Lacks is devastating. Not to mention, her samples went on to do great things and become very profitable but Henrietta or her family never seen an ounce of this profit and were even in debt with her medical bills. The way the doctors took advantage of this poor, black woman was atrocious and shows just how the scientific work that revolves around blood attempted to separate us more.
Lastly, during the beginning of the presentation one of the first slides that was shown was of an advertisement for medicine. However, the advertisement was directed at African American people. The presenter made a comment saying something along the lines of the hearts of African Americans not being different than anyone else heart. I fully agree with this comment. Although, I believe that African Americans are more susceptible to different heart diseases because of the diet that most Blacks eat, I do not think that the underlying issue at hand is that the hearts of Blacks are just genetically different but that different outside forces such as diet might be causing a huge wear on the heart. When you make claims such as this, you are furthering diving Blacks from those of other races and might also be causing someone of a different race who have a heart problem to miss out on a medication that might actually be helpful for them because the pharmaceutical industry was only targeting African Americans.
With all the racial divide that we see today, I do not believe that we should go out of our way to find other ways of division. Therefore, my main concern from this presentation was how blood was playing an influence of separating us more. Aspects of this include the Henrietta Lacks story, the blood samples from Indians, and the pharmaceutical who promoted their medicine to a Black audience. Instead of going out of our way to find differences and ignite a divide, we should look at ways we are the same so that no one could ever feel the right to be superior because of their genetic makeup.