Science dropped ball on concept of race

Re Little scientific support for concept of race,

Oct. 12 The mind-blowing report by Faye Flam is more proof that race is not something we are born with; it is not a genetic or biological fact, even though the concept is often represented as if it were.

Although the vast majority of sociologists and other social scientists no longer view race in biological terms, the study of race continues to obscure and confound the ambiguities over how racial lines have been drawn historically and are being redrawn today.

This profound misunderstanding of race has found permanence in the sacred and legal documents of the United States and formed policies and practices in certain states. For example, Chief Justice Roger Taney crafted the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Taney characterized black people as “beings of an inferior order, that they had no rights that the white man was bound to respect.” Racial discrimination also served as the principle of social organization during the Jim Crow era.

The distinguished African-American scholar W.E.B. DuBois, in his landmark book, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), stated with unabashed aplomb: “The problem of the 20th-century is the problem of the colour line.”

The relevance of this statement cannot be overstated, and race is, indeed, the most egregious idea to ever come out of science. Barrington A. Morrison, Schomberg, Ont.

Why drug plan not in place?

Re Make drug plan a reality, Editorial Oct. 17 The need for a national drug plan is not rocket science; most Canadians would say it is a no-brainer. So, why don’t we have one?

Is it because no brains are being applied or the federal and provincial governments cannot agree? Or are we restrained by the “golden straitjacket” of a trade agreement we have or the big one that is pending?

Canadians have the right to know which, so that we can act accordingly. Keith Parkinson, Cambridge, Ont.