Template:Race and Genetics NHGC

1. When the human species is viewed as a whole, underlying genetic variation and expressed physical traits exhibit gradients of differentiation, not discrete units. Therefore, modern extant humans do not fracture into races (subspecies) based on the modern phylogenetic criteria of molecular systematics.
2. The biological “boundaries” between any human divisions (groups, populations, nationalities) are circumstantial and largely dependent on what traits are chosen for emphasis.
3. The demographic units of human societies (and of the U.S. census) are the products of social or political rules, not the forces of biological evolution. The names and characteristics of demographic groups can change and have changed over time.
4. Group differences in health parameters are not encoded in the human genome as part of an evolutionary pattern of divergence. Thus, differences in health or disease cannot be treated as causally related to ethnoancestral groups.
5. Genotype-environment interactions are more important in explaining group differences in health than genotype, environment, or a factor called “race”.
6. The non-existence of human races (subspecies) does not mean the non-existence of racism. Racism is the structured systematic oppression against individuals and groups defined based on physical traits that reflect an extremely limited fraction of the human genome. Racism must be addressed.
7. Individuals cannot be treated as representative for all those who physically resemble them, or have some of the same ethnohistorical ancestry. Ancestries of individuals and groups should be ascertained in order to evaluate differential expression of genetic effects.

*Summary of the observations and recommendations included in the National Human Genome Center position statement on race and genetics by Charles N. Rotimi in Understanding and Using Human Genetic Variation Knowledge in the Design and Conduct of Biomedical Research. [1]. Retrieved 05 March 2007.