’Race is a social construct’: the problem when ideology clashes with medical science

One often hears the claim that race is a ‘social construct’. There is no harm in making such a silly claim, unless it is taken seriously. When this happens and science comes up against blind ideology, the outlook is bleak. Those likely to suffer under such circumstances are the members of ethnic minorities. Suddendorf RF (1989) Research on alcohol metabolism among Asians and its implications for understanding causes of alcoholism, Public Health Rep. 1989;104(6):615-620. Lv, Nan and Brown, Lynne (2010) Place of Dairy Products in the Chinese-American Family Food System, Journal of the American Dietetic Association Volume 110, Issue 8, August 2010, Pages 1207-1215. McIntosh, Hugh (1997) Why Do African- American Men Suffer More Prostate Cancer?, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Volume 89, Issue 3, 5 February 1997, Pages 188–189