Making the Mexican Diabetic: Race, Science, and the Genetics of Inequality
Michael Montoya
Abstract
This ethnographic study animates the racial politics that underlie genomic research into type 2 diabetes, one of the most widespread chronic diseases and one which affects ethnic groups disproportionately. The book follows blood donations from “Mexican American” donors to laboratories that are searching out genetic contributions to diabetes. Its analysis lays bare the politics and ethics of the research process, addressing the implicit contradiction of undertaking genetic research that reinscribes race's importance even as it is being demonstrated to have little scientific validity. In placing ... More
Keywords: racial politics, genomic research, type 2 diabetes, blood donation, Mexican-American donors, race, DNA sampling, American life
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520267305 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520267305.001.0001 |
