ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses how the simplifications devised for community education do sickle cell a disservice in several crucial respects. It considers the ways in which sickle cell disease is influenced not only by a gene on chromosome 11, but what comprises a whole genome and how genomic expression is related to the whole organism of a human being. The human organism is itself nested in several environments, for instance, genomic environments in which the capacities of one gene to spread in a geographical region partly depend upon the epigenetic effects of other genes present in that region. The book provides a “short history” of sickle cell, was to try to be reflective about the manner in which black people have been stratified into lower socio-economic positions in North America and Europe, and have been racialized on the basis of the resulting poverty.
