tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/csi-24306/articlesCSI – The Conversation2020-07-24T15:25:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1425062020-07-24T15:25:21Z2020-07-24T15:25:21ZHow cop shows serve to reinforce the racism at the heart of our culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348672/original/file-20200721-29-ea4muj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2992%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/detective-board-photos-suspected-criminals-crime-1473136763">DedMityay/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>TV police shows are a complicated strand of entertainment. Unsurprisingly, they have come under the cultural microscope in response to police brutality and the death of George Floyd. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/06/08/cop-tv-shows-race/">Many critiques</a> have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/25/law-and-disorder-how-shows-cloud-the-public-view-of-criminal-justice">drawn upon</a> a <a href="https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Normalizing-Injustice_Abridged-1.pdf">report by</a> US civil-rights group Color of Change, entitled Normalizing Injustice, to demonstrate how crime shows have supported the way we sanction police violence. </p>
<p>A main strand of the report explores what it terms “misbehaviour” by law enforcement on TV. Misbehaviour can mean a number of things, from bending a rule to outright criminal behaviour. However, the issue in these shows is much more complex. The wider problem is that systemic racism is rampant in the TV industry, behind and in front of the camera, and these shows are a classic example of what this produces. </p>
<p>As far as misbehaviour is concerned, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286486/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Shield</a> is one example at the extreme end of the spectrum. The show follows a group of “corrupt but effective cops” and their captain, who is torn between stopping them and a fear that this will undermine his political aspirations of becoming mayor of Los Angeles. </p>
<p>The show exposes police corruption and brutality at every level of law enforcement. It is shot with handheld cameras and features little music, making the sounds of beatings more visceral and the violence more realistic. Over seven seasons, it captures the various institutional and political incentives to cover up crimes committed by the police. </p>
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<p>Elsewhere, the sub-genre of shows about “consultant detectives” depicts less violent but no less harmful forms of misbehaviour. This genre includes shows like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1196946/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Mentalist</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191671/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Elementary</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491738/">Psych</a>. </p>
<p>All feature white, male consultants who enjoy police freedoms such as access to information in large databases and autopsy reports, without any of the accountability. They break into suspects’ houses, interview minors without a guardian or kidnap suspects, all without legal or social consequences. Furthermore, this behaviour is usually sanctioned by the shows’ insistence that these characters are “good guys”. </p>
<h2>Formula for failure</h2>
<p>While misbehaviour is a big problem, it is not the only one. Following the massive success of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247082/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">CSI: Crime Scene Investigations</a> in the early 2000s, there has been a wave of “forensic detective” shows which assert that “following the evidence” is the guiding principle of detection. Aside from their predominantly white casts, these series ignore the way the use of science incorporates conservative biases while also bolstering racial stereotypes as it ignores social contexts. </p>
<p>Individual episodes of series like CSI rely on a three-act structure that ends with seemingly irrefutable evidence and a confession of guilt. This serves to close off any discussion of how social context contributes to crime, depicting criminals as disruptions in an otherwise well-functioning world. As such, these supposedly objective <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137425652">methods of detection</a> reproduce institutional and systemic racism under the guide of “following the evidence”. </p>
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<p>More open-ended and <a href="https://justtv.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/mittell-narrative-complexity.pdf">complex</a> narrative structures make it possible for social context to be explored. Such structure benefited The Wire, which followed a team investigating drug-related crimes. The show offered insights into the systemic failure of the “war on drugs”. It also gave dimension to characters who would normally be stigmatised as “gangsters” by offering access to their inner lives and exploring the social conditions that produce crime. </p>
<p>Mainstream awards like the Golden Globes and Emmys have traditionally failed to recognise series like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/awards">The Wire</a>, ignoring shows with racially balanced or majority Black casts. Despite being critically acclaimed, The Wire failed to win a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-flashback-now-a-classic-wire-was-overlooked-by-emmys-1230199">single Primetime Emmy Award</a> nor receive any major nominations, except for two writing nominations in 2005 and 2008. </p>
<p>Such instances highlight what kinds of shows are valued by the industry. This feeds into commissioning as it sends a clear signal of how to get industry recognition. The system is, thus, doomed to replicate itself, resulting in shows that all look the same and suffer from the same problems. </p>
<h2>Real-world barriers</h2>
<p>It is unsurprising with such an entrenched “recipe for success” that most lead actors in these shows are male and white. As well as being sidelined in supporting roles, actors of colour face a myriad of institutional barriers. </p>
<p>This includes pay disparity, an issue that was highlighted in 2017 when the two Asian-American leads in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1600194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Hawaii Five-0</a>, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, asked for <a href="https://time.com/4847554/hawaii-five-0-equal-pay-controversy/">pay equality</a> to their white colleagues Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. </p>
<p>Both were unsuccessful and subsequently <a href="https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/daniel-dae-kim-grace-park-hawaii-five-0-1202484329/">quit the series</a> after seven seasons. This left Hawaii Five-0, which featured no indigenous Hawaiian lead actors in the first place, without Asian-American actors with significant star power in the midst of a debate on whitewashing in Hollywood. Though this instance is discouraging, it did serve to bring wider issues surrounding systemic racism in the television industry to the fore. </p>
<p>Recognising that there are many problems, overt and covert, involved in cop shows is important and avoids simplistic narrative solutions being used to plaster over deeper problems. Such solutions as having a <a href="https://www.tvguide.com/news/chicago-pd-season-6-episode-13-laroyce-hawkins-black-lives-matter/">Black Lives Matter episode</a> or <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=brooklyn+99+episode+BLM&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB778GB783&oq=brooklyn+99+episode+BLM&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.8197j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">rewriting seasons</a>. There are specific solutions that can help change these shows and benefit the wider industry. These include pay equality, colourblind casting and diversity quotas for crews, writers’ rooms, directors and producers. </p>
<p>The representation of “misbehaviour” is an important issue, but so are problems inherent in the formulas of the crime genre and institutionalised racism within an industry that denies opportunities to people of colour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mareike Jenner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The way this genre represents police is just the tip of the iceberg.Mareike Jenner, Senior Lecturer, Media Studies, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804412018-03-11T09:02:25Z2018-03-11T09:02:25ZHow corporate social responsibility projects can be derailed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208668/original/file-20180302-65516-j8xgca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big companies operating in developing countries often use corporate social responsibility initiatives to position themselves as development agents and friends of the host communities.</p>
<p>But in places like South Africa – and within the mining sector in particular – initiatives aren’t achieving the objectives they were designed to meet. Animosity between corporations and hosting communities persists. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/marikana-massacre-16-august-2012">Marikana massacre</a> is a case in point. A labour dispute between platinum mining company, Lonmin, and its workers, spiralled out of control, resulting in the death of 34 miners after police opened fire on a demonstration. The events at Marikana show how animosities continue to exist, and the damage they can cause.</p>
<p>One of the factors that’s emerged in the intervening four years is that there were major gaps in Lonmin’s corporate social responsibility programme. An <a href="https://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/marikana-report-1.pdf">analysis</a> of the Marikana events show that the company <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-09-04-groundup-marikana-lonmins-dodgy-housing-record/#.WplDNGpubIU">failed</a> dismally to meet its housing plans for workers. This left a significant portion of the workforce living in dehumanising conditions.</p>
<p>The Lonmin case illustrates two key areas of failure that are common in approaches taken companies. These are a failure to appreciate the cultural sensitivities of host communities and poor communication.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15228916.2016.1219174">paper</a> we review various approaches taken by companies. The paper uses key dimensions of corporate social responsibility – moral, ethical, economic, cultural and consultative and legal. The aim was to identify which the weakest links in the strategies pursued by big corporates.</p>
<p>The research could contribute to a theoretical framework that can be used to develop negotiated and mutually acceptable outcomes. This could potentially reduce the friction and tension that are often present when corporate social responsibility projects are implemented. </p>
<h2>Communication is key</h2>
<p>Why do companies engage in corporate social responsibility projects? The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262901183_Corporate_Citizenship_in_South_Africa">main reason</a> is a growing realisation that they have a compelling moral, ethical and legal obligation to protect their operating environment as well as stakeholders. They’re also motivated by strategic and economic imperatives.</p>
<p>Our study confirms two key factors. The first is that communication plays a huge role in corporate social responsibility projects. The second is that many have been derailed by uninformed assumptions about the needs and priorities of host communities. </p>
<p>Adopting a consultative decision making approach is essential. If initiatives are viewed as being community oriented, then it makes sense to involve the intended beneficiaries – both in initiation and implementation.</p>
<p>Our study encountered a case where a company encouraged farmers in the community to form themselves into a cooperative society. The company was collaborating with a university faculty of agriculture to train cooperative farmers. The training focused on the use of modern technology and the cultivation of high yielding crops. The idea was that the company would then purchase the crops at prevailing market prices.</p>
<p>The initiative generated a reasonable amount of employment and sustainable income for the community members. But community leaders reacted with hostility. They dismissed the project because they argued that it was fraught with nepotism and favouritism. They also saw it as an attempt to divide and rule. The project, they said, was devised</p>
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<p>to cause confusion amongst our people so that we do not speak with one voice against the operations of the company.</p>
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<p>They charged that distributors were selectively appointed by the company without consultation. They added that:</p>
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<p>Most of the distributors are relatives or extended family members of a major shareholder of the company, who is a native of our neighbouring village.</p>
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<p>The cooperative project became moribund.</p>
<p>The community leaders’ reaction points to poor communication and consultation. A participatory decision making approach would have resolved the community’s allegations and perceptions. </p>
<h2>Cultural sensitivities</h2>
<p>Our study also shows that corporations should consider cultural and traditional values when initiating projects. Not doing so could prove expensive.</p>
<p>Cultural and property rights practices differ from one jurisdiction to the other. In most African societies, land is central to people’s existence and identity. Cultural beliefs and traditional practices are often tied to the land.</p>
<p>People’s homes, and the land around them, are considered to be a heritage from ones ancestors and must therefore be preserved and sanctified through rituals. These cultural beliefs and practices don’t always make business sense to multinationals. They, perhaps even unconsciously, underestimate the significance attached to ancestral lands.</p>
<p>Land is sometimes appropriated by government, while businesses are required to pay compensation and relocate people. From our interviews, it was inferred that a company does not see anything untoward in acquiring graveyards and compensating families to exhume and re-bury their ancestors. </p>
<p>But communities consider this to be taboo and a process that could invoke the wrath of their ancestors. </p>
<p>It’s therefore imperative for corporations – particularly multinationals – to foster cultural understanding with local communities. </p>
<h2>Your heading here</h2>
<p>Overall, we found that companies were willing to embrace corporate social responsibility. This was often expressed in their vision and mission statements and through considerable monetary allocations towards corporate social responsibility initiatives. But many fail due to cultural insensitivity and misplaced communication strategies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olorunjuwon Samuel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Corporates are willing to embrace corporate social responsibility initiatives. But many fail due to cultural insensitivity and misplaced communication strategies.Olorunjuwon Samuel, Associate Professor, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/836202017-09-07T15:34:42Z2017-09-07T15:34:42ZTake pity on forensic scientists – crime writers make their lives a nightmare <figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185101/original/file-20170907-9585-hbp7kb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The truth is not always out there. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-doctor-doing-blood-test-565713508?src=WjH5kf7_wFCSNECOY0EYbQ-1-3">Elnur</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A blackmailer steals a compromising letter from a woman of high standing. The police know he is keeping this letter in his home, but they cannot find it. Using the latest forensic tools they search every inch of the apartment, recording their efforts as follows: </p>
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<p>We examined the rungs of every chair …. and, indeed, the jointings of every description of furniture, by the aid of a most powerful microscope. Had there been any traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect it instantly. </p>
<p>A single grain of gimlet-dust, for example, would have been as obvious as an apple. Any disorder in the glueing – any unusual gaping in the joints – would have sufficed to insure [sic] detection.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Back in 1844, this description of the police using a powerful microscope with the promise of instant detection would have dazzled readers of Edgar Allan Poe’s <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7Ehyper/poe/purloine.html">The Purloined Letter</a>. Yet this is not what solves the mystery. Instead the private investigator, Auguste Dupin, correctly surmises that the best place to hide such a letter is in plain sight. He finds it on the blackmailer’s mantelpiece. </p>
<p>The story is one of the earliest and best examples of crime fiction. It suggests that science and technology are sometimes not as powerful as empathy or intuition in solving crimes. Indeed, Poe queries science throughout his writings. In one poem he <a href="https://group92016.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/what-is-the-title-by-alice-dunbar-nelson/">calls it</a> a vulture that preys on the poet’s heart, replacing the magic of a writer’s imagination with its “dull realities”. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1043&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185103/original/file-20170907-9576-25li4x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Bloody good.</span>
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<p>Try telling that to modern readers of crime fiction. These days, forensic scientists are one of the great staples of the genre. They are integral to everything from popular TV franchises like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247082/">CSI</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yzlr0">Line of Duty</a> to blockbuster names like <a href="http://www.patriciacornwell.com/about/">Patricia Cornwell</a> and <a href="https://www.jefferydeaver.com/about/qa/">Jeffrey Deaver</a> to many of the works showcasing at the <a href="https://www.bloodyscotland.com">Bloody Scotland festival in Stirling</a>. There is also something about their incredible achievements that we often overlook: they are often a long way from the reality. </p>
<h2>Criminal comforts</h2>
<p>We love crime fiction because it is reassuring. Yes, human beings are capable of evil and cruel deeds, but criminals are always caught and usually punished. This formula, as WH Auden <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1948/05/the-guilty-vicarage/">suggested</a> in a 1948 essay on the genre, restores us to a “state of grace”. It helps us believe we are basically innocent and good, and that criminality is an aberration. </p>
<p>Forensic science amplifies this sense of comfort in crime fiction: it produces evidence that cannot lie; it brings the most cunning of criminals to justice. In a world with <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/94578.The_Gay_Science">no god</a> and <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/lyotard.htm">no certainty</a>, these fictional scientists fill a void. They let us think that our world can be examined, analysed and rendered legible. They are modern-day magicians whose wizardry reveals indisputable truths. </p>
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<span class="caption">Val McDermid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fenoswin/9428748866/in/photolist-7pUwj9-nrwHUc-fnbNxC-auJTRA-a6WAVV-auJT17-9MsomG-auGeQr-BTyNK-auJTwA-8Gtysb-BTyLG-neq88F-auGdCp-a6WCj6-auGecX-5TtQjG-4RBK8x-q46FKd-fgUF6x-auJW9A-3eRQAR-neqkaN-6Lu84G-auJRLW-VKjaft-WVg3uq-a6ZuxG-e7u6nu-5xapMb-a6WBDn-a6WBGT-a6WB9P-a6ZuAw-a6ZutS-a6ZuqN-a6WCfg-a6WBSv-Ub46Z-9vsggB-FRP2qv">Fenris Oswin</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But does forensic science really hold all the answers? Sadly, no. Val McDermid, one of the big names <a href="https://www.bloodyscotland.com/event/val-mcdermid-30-years-in-the-business-of-crime/?spektrix_bounce=true">appearing</a> at Bloody Scotland, is one of the few authors who help us understand this. In <a href="http://www.valmcdermid.com/books/out-of-bounds/">Out of Bounds</a> (2016) for example, the police are trying to determine whether a man was murdered or shot himself. </p>
<p>The amount of gunshot residue in his hand is inconclusive, we learn, and not inconsistent with a self-inflicted wound. How can scientific evidence be inconclusive? How come scientists talk of things being “not inconsistent”, rather than dealing in certainties? </p>
<p>This is where the trouble begins for forensic experts. Imagine a scientist giving evidence as a witness in court and having to explain the limitations of their field. Jurors are unlikely to appreciate that forensic evidence often relies on human interpretation; that blood spatter patterns or bite mark analysis do not tell a single, compelling and unambiguous story the way they do in books. </p>
<p>Yet the reality of the uncertainty of forensic science was recently laid bare in relation to the DNA laboratory of the office of New York City’s chief medical examiner. Seen as one of the most sophisticated forensics labs in the world, carrying out work for investigators across the US, certain scientists are <a href="http://www.govtech.com/health/Thousands-of-Criminal-Cases-in-New-York-Relied-on-Questionable-Software-Code-for-DNA-Testing.html">now claiming</a> some of its methods are unreliable. A group of prominent New York defence lawyers is calling for the inspections watchdog to carry out an investigation. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, America’s National Institute of Standards and Technology <a href="https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2017/09/speaking-error-forensic-science">recently accused</a> the forensics industry of lagging other professions when it comes to looking into and resolving errors. It said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In recent years, high visibility errors have occurred at crime labs in almost every state. These have ranged from simple mistakes, such as mislabelling evidence, to testimony that overstates the scientific evidence, to criminal acts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In thrillers, forensic evidence almost always leads the investigative team to a satisfying conclusion. We never finish a novel thinking the killer might be exonerated when the evidence is re-examined. Even when all is as it should be, forensic scientists have their work cut out trying to communicate the complexity of the evidence, while explaining how it might be both subjective and reliable at the same time. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185133/original/file-20170907-9549-99gzdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not perfect.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/forensic-experts-finds-fingerprints-on-window-631148360?src=VUgm6maDgPkuZiGAI5sdPQ-1-28">zoka74</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To make their case, scientists need much more than hard facts. They need to make their expertise accessible by using similes, metaphors and narrative examples. In fact, they need to be a little like novelists – which is ironic given that they have to dispel some of the misconceptions created by novelists in the first place. </p>
<p>If there is a consolation in any of this, these experts can at least thank novelists for their public image. No matter how hard they have to work to seek and communicate knowledge, at least forensic scientists will always look glamorous while doing so. They might be the victims of our need for reassurance and certainty, but we don’t tend to treat them with the same hostility as Edgar Allan Poe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aliki Varvogli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If only DNA samples and microfibres made crimes as easy to solve as on CSI.Aliki Varvogli, Senior Lecturer in English and Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535942016-02-04T04:27:35Z2016-02-04T04:27:35ZHow the origin of the KhoiSan tells us that ‘race’ has no place in human ancestry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109968/original/image-20160202-32222-14dj62q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The annual 'Living Landscapes' procession is aimed at raising awareness of the Cedarberg's KhoiSan cultural heritage. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ancient origins, anatomical, linguistic and genetic distinctiveness of southern African San and Khoikhoi people are matters of confusion and debate. They are variously described as the world’s first or oldest people; Africa’s first or oldest people, or the <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Khoi-San-want-recognition-as-first-people-of-SA-20150820">first people</a> of South Africa.</p>
<p>They are in fact two evolutionarily related but culturally distinct groups of populations that have occupied southern Africa for up to 140,000 years. Their first-people status is due to the fact that they commonly retain genetic elements of the most ancient <em>Homo sapiens</em>.</p>
<p>This conclusion is based on evidence from specific types of DNA. This evidence also demonstrates that other sub-Saharan human populations retain genetic bits and pieces of DNA from non-KhoiSan primordial humans. These pre-date their out-of-Africa colonisation of the balance of the world.</p>
<p>What is important in the debate on the origins of, and diversity among, population groups of <em>Homo sapiens</em> is to establish what cannot, and should not, be derived from the various DNA evidence used to support the KhoiSan-as-first-people hypothesis. </p>
<p>This is that the KhoiSan, or any other groups of humans, can be assigned to evolutionarily meaningful “races” – or subspecies in biological classification.</p>
<p>The DNA evidence, if interpreted incorrectly, could be used to support the findings of “scientific” racial anthropologists such as <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Carleton_Stevens_Coon.aspx">Carleton S. Coon</a>. </p>
<p>As recently as 1962, Coon “recognised” the KhoiSan as the Capoid race. He based this on the distinctive anatomical features of the Capoids from those he used to designate the Congoid race. These include golden brown rather than sepia-coloured skin, the presence of epicanthic eye folds, prominent cheekbones and <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steatopygia">steatopygia</a>.</p>
<p>But, if correctly interpreted, the scientific evidence points quite to the contrary.</p>
<h2>Human evolution cannot be drawn like a tree</h2>
<p>If one were to compare the entire DNA genomes from representatively sampled human populations from around the world, the resulting relationships would look more like an evolutionarily reticulated chain-link fence. In other words, a network rather than a tree. This applies to even purportedly racially important anatomical features.</p>
<p>This is because human population groups worldwide are highly homogeneous (99.5% similar) genetically and their anatomical features vary in an uncorrelated fashion over the landscape. </p>
<p>These groups are, in evolutionary terms, very recent entities that have no biological or <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-science-has-been-abused-through-the-ages-to-promote-racism-50629">taxonomic</a> significance.</p>
<p>The DNA evidence used to discover the human genetic “footprints” that characterise the KhoiSan, and other diverging populations, is today easily put together. Forensic pathologists use it to determine an unidentifiable corpse’s population group. This process has been popularised on television shows such as <a href="http://www.tvmuse.com/tv-shows/CSI--Crime-Scene-Investigation_8779/">CSI</a> and <a href="http://www.fox.com/bones">Bones</a>.</p>
<p>This DNA evidence comes from:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Y chromosome polymorphisms inherited without recombination along <a href="http://www.ramsdale.org/dna13.htm">male lineages</a>;</p></li>
<li><p>single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, from nuclear <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v409/n6822/full/409821a0.html">DNA</a>; and</p></li>
<li><p>most especially from <a href="http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/3/757.full.pdf+html">mitochondrial DNA</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Mitochondria are organelles within a cell that have their own independent DNA separate from that in the nucleus that determines an organism’s external appearance and physiology. They are involved with cellular respiration and nothing more.</p>
<p>Mitochondrial DNA allows the detection of direct genetically “ungarbled” connections among evolutionarily evolved human population groups. This is because a component of it evolves much faster than the bulk of nuclear DNA. Also, mitochondrial DNA is inherited maternally and is thus not intermixed with paternal DNA during reproduction.</p>
<p>Some evolutionary genetic anthropologists ignore the overwhelming balance of evidence that there is no evolutionarily significant <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-science-has-been-abused-through-the-ages-to-promote-racism-50629">racial variation</a> in either genes or anatomy. Instead they focus on these very few bits and pieces of DNA that, in evolutionary terms, change rapidly. This way they reach distorted conclusions about discernible “races” within the human species.</p>
<h2>Why there is only one race</h2>
<p>Recent DNA results used to detect human population genetic “footprints” is <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24988-humanitys-forgotten-return-to-africa-revealed-in-dna/">summarised</a> in: Humanity’s forgotten return to Africa revealed in DNA.</p>
<p>The story it tells is as follows. About 140,000 years ago human populations from East or Central Africa moved southwards and “colonise” western southern Africa. The probable nearest living relatives of these source populations are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/hadza/finkel-text">Hadzabe people</a> from north-central Tanzania; and</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0509/feature5/">Mbuti pygmies</a> from the eastern Congo.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This migration gave rise to the present-day <a href="http://www.san.org.za/history.php">San hunter-gatherers</a>.</p>
<p>Much more recently – about 2000 years ago – there was a second movement of “colonists” from the north into southwestern Africa. They gave rise to the pastoral <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people-south-africa/khoikhoi">Khoikhoi people</a>.</p>
<p>This second group of “settlers” carried within its genome bits of Eurasian-sourced – and even some <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-neanderthalensis">Neanderthal</a> – DNA derived from European humans who had returned to Africa about 3000 years ago.</p>
<p>Subsequent to this second colonisation, there was intermixing between the Khoikhoi and San. This gave rise to their close anatomical similarities despite the fact that they retained their marked cultural and linguistic differences.</p>
<p>Much more recently – about 1700 years ago – there was a third major north-to-south migration. This time it was the Bantu-speaking, black Africans into south-eastern Africa. Those “settlers” that eventually became the Xhosa peoples moved westwards and encountered the Khoikhoi, whom they drove further west and intermixed with genetically.</p>
<p>So, it is now possible for genetic evolutionary “anthropologists” to distinguish population differences among humans to infer the timing of their movements throughout the globe.</p>
<p>It is even possible to map one’s genetic “ancestry”, as South African President Nelson Mandela did, indicating that he possessed some <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/dna-test-may-reveal-youre-related-to-madiba-1.268615">KhoiSan</a> DNA.</p>
<p>The important point is that this evidence should not be used to assert that these differences, or shared bits of “ancient” DNA, support the identification of multiple human “races”. In fact, it confirms the wise assertion by the pan-Africanist leader, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/robert-sobukwe-inaugural-speech-april-1959">Robert Sobukwe</a>, that there was only one race: the human race.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Before his retirement Tim Crowe received funding from the South African National Research Foundation and Department of Science and Technology through an award to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology as DST/NRF Centre of Excellence.</span></em></p>Human population groups worldwide are highly homogeneous genetically. They are in fact 99.5% similar and their anatomical features vary in an uncorrelated fashion over the landscape.Tim Crowe, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.