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Investigator publications listed on this site relate to research funded through the Investigator Awards program. References are provided for books and selected journal articles written by the investigators. Abstracts are available for some featured publications.
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Cover
Fatal Invention
Roberts, D.
Published: 2011
The New Press
»Show summary
A decade after the Human Genome Project proved that human beings are not naturally divided by race, the emerging fields of personalized medicine, reproductive technologies, genetic genealogy, and DNA databanks are attempting to resuscitate race as a biological category written in our genes. In this provocative analysis, leading legal scholar and social critic Dorothy Roberts argues that America is once again at the brink of a virulent outbreak of classifying population by race. By searching for differences at the molecular level, a new race-based science is obscuring racism in our society and legitimizing state brutality against communities of color at a time when America claims to be post-racial.

Moving from an account of the evolution of race—proving that it has always been a mutable and socially defined political division supported by mainstream science—Roberts delves deep into the current debates, interrogating the newest science and biotechnology, interviewing its researchers, and exposing the political consequences obscured by the focus on genetic difference. Fatal Invention is a provocative call for us to affirm our common humanity.

Linked Investigator Award(s):
Dorothy E. Roberts, J.D.Race Consciousness in Biomedicine, Law, and Social Policy
Award Year: 2007

»Show Abstract
The validity of race-based medicine remains highly controversial. Some scientists, policymakers, and activists criticize it as flawed given scientific evidence that there is far more genetic variation within racial groupings than between them. Others welcome it for its potential to address health disparities, past discrimination in the provision of medical care, and lack of minority representation in biomedical research. What is the proper role of race in medicine, biomedical and disparities research, and health policy? And how are views about race in medicine related to broader debates in America about racial equality? Dorothy E. Roberts, J.D. explores the development of race-based medicine and its relationship to concepts of social justice. Her project, Race Consciousness in Biomedicine, Law, and Social Policy, uses legal doctrine and theories of racial equality to examine scientific and political debates about race consciousness and colorblindness and to evaluate the ethics of using race in biomedical research and policy development. The results of her study should provide practical guidance to researchers and policymakers concerned with the proper role of race in science and health policy.