In class on Thursday our conversation rested heavily on the idea of due diligence brought to our attention by Mike Fortun. I am surprised SameXDifference didn’t appear earlier in the book. There were several mentions about the apparent homogeneity of the Icelandic people, thus making them great guinea pigs/research participants in the genomic undertaking of deCODE. Early on, I questioned this assumption, but assumed the scientists behind the deCODE project knew something about shared genetics that I, a social work major, didn’t know. Turns out, I knew more than I gave myself credit for.
I learned years ago that race is socially constructed, because biologically people of all color are more the same than we are different. Alternately, as a culture we have created race as a way of classifying differences in people. Having this line of thinking as my foundation, I quickly questioned the reasons deCODE made for researching Icelandic people. I then began to wonder what year the idea of socially constructed race began to be acknowledged. I did a quick Internet search and found that journals began to publish pieces on the topic in the early 1990’s- around the same time deCODE was getting started. Maybe the idea didn’t make its way from the social science to the hard sciences fast enough, giving good cause to the importance of interdisciplinary research.
In the case of deCODE, due diligence was not given to the previous research and resources about human genetic sameness. When deCODE began to make promises to investors and the public about the unique attributes of the Icelandic people, I am surprised more prominent people didn’t speak up about the ignorant claims being made. What took so long? Was it only when they went public that it became an open problem? Fortun shares that more new genomic firms are attempting to sell their products on account of heterogeneity. Due diligence must be given to this, much to the same tune of a previous entry I made about Fortun “calling us, the people, to be more careful, thoughtful, just and admirable while negotiating the new territory.” In sum, careful research is important before promises are given.
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Quoting you: " I am surprised SameXDifference didn’t appear earlier in the book." Fortun does mention the idea earlier but does wait. Can you think of any reasons Fortun might have "saved" the chapter for later? I think you are right about the relatively recent social science literature (90s) not having yet become a matter of common understanding. Even if we put the "race" notion aside it is still surprising that the homogeneity claims had any early plausibility at all. We see it's in deCODE's own interest that the homogeneity idea not be criticized; perhaps the disposition to believe it was widespread enough that no one thought to question the claims about it.
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