Understanding Race
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Course
Professor’s Name
Date
Understanding Race
Race and Human Variation
Traditional concepts of genetic variations are somehow flawed, based on the reasoning that it was thought to be very different. However, there are very few genetic variations of people of different races, like the Europeans and the Asians. The changes of Africans are various; however, they are very similar among themselves because migration out of Africa is limited. In a population, the race is defined as a group of people with the same genetic characteristics which are different from that of other groups. However, when comparing the three races, they have almost the same variations, which means that their evolution would exhibit the same features. Based on the differences in physical characteristics, races are divided into primary, unmixed, and secondary sources. The fact that the races’ evolution exhibits the same distinctiveness repels Darwin’s theory, which has it that humans originated from a single gene pool.
Health Connection: Do our genes determine our health
Genes play an essential role in determining health as some diseases like diabetes are hereditary. However, even environmental conditions and also has a potential effect on the health of an individual. Skin color does not account for the distribution of sickle cell disease. The condition is associated with malaria, and that is why it is common in areas where there is malaria. In this case, most African, southern Asia, and India have commonality with the condition because of the environment prone to malaria. The high rates of hypertension among African Americans are due to racial discrimination, which triggers mental distress and an elevated cardiovascular response. Age-related Macular Degeneration is another disease common among European Americans, attributed to diet and genetic attachments.