As It Enters the Sporting Spotlight, Brazil Calls on the World to Rethink Race
By Siân Herbert,
Guardian UK
| 08. 14. 2012
Brazil is now officially on track for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. In a bid to open the world's eyes to the real Brazil – past the flat-Earth vision of carnivals and caipirinhas – the government has put its weight behind a campaign set to shake up global debates on race.
The campaign, "
We R no race" ("Nós não temos raça"), offers free DNA testing to the public to prove there is only one race – the human race. Genome mapping reveals that human beings are actually 99.5% genetically identical; and that the majority of human genetic diversity exists
within local populations, much less existing
between local populations. In short, there is no
genetic basis for race.
The project, led by
Brazilian geneticist professor Sérgio Pena, hopes to DNA test all footballers taking part in the 2014 World Cup, and potentially all Olympians in 2016. The Brazilian embassy in London is currently piloting the scheme, offering free DNA tests to the public. Brazil's minister of sport – Aldo Rebeldo –
was first in line...
Related Articles
By Pam Belluck, The New York Times | 10.17.2025
Before dawn on a March morning, Doug Whitney walked into a medical center 2,000 miles from home, about to transform from a mild-mannered, bespectacled retiree into a superhuman research subject.
First, a doctor inserted a needle into his back to...
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Zoeann Murphy, The Washington Post | 10.01.2025
MEXICO CITY — When she walked into an IVF clinic in June, Alin Quintana knew it would be the last time she would try to conceive a child. She had prepared herself spiritually and mentally for the visit: She had traveled to a nearby...
By Rob Stein, NPR | 09.30.2025
Scientists have created human eggs containing genes from adult skin cells, a step that someday could help women who are infertile or gay couples have babies with their own genes but would also raise difficult ethical, social and legal issues...
By Jessica Mouzo, El País | 10.03.2025
DNA is the molecule of life: this double-helix structure, present in every cell in the body and organized into fragments called genes, stores the instructions for making organisms function. It is a highly precise biological machine, but sometimes it breaks...