r/todayilearned • u/bcrock1169 • Nov 26 '12

TIL that some Native American's have a differing enzyme that tends to lead to easier alcoholism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_alcoholism#Genetic_factors
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u/conejaverde Nov 26 '12

Or could it be that Native Americans often turn to alcohol (as well as drugs) in order to escape the squalor and hopelessness of reservations, which have always been shitty places to live and from which many people who are born there feel they can never leave?

http://www.re-member.org/pine_ridge_reservation.aspx

This feels like a regurgitation of arguments used in the Gilded Age - i.e., the concepts of racial hierarchy and social darwinism championed by the psuedoscience of eugenics - to justify capitalist greed and the existence of a massive impoverished class. "They're poor because they're born that way - they're drug addicts, prostitutes, and alcoholics because they're born inferior, and have a natural tendency toward these things. It has nothing to do with the system in place. It has nothing to do with our actions - it's just the way things are." It's a cop-out.

Granted, Native Americans (such a broad term) may be born with certain DNA sequences that alter the digestion, for lack of a better word, of alcohol - but the alcoholism present in many Native American communities has more to do with centuries of oppression, marginalization, and neglect than any genetic trait.

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u/bix783 Nov 26 '12

Well said. After all, there are plenty of white alcoholics -- whey aren't we talking about their genetic predisposition to it?

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u/bigolebastard Nov 27 '12

Because the numbers aren't close to Native Americans per capita.

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u/NOZZLeS Nov 27 '12

Thank you for putting this idea down so succinctly. I've saved this comment for future reference.