Is science racist? *
Every arena of science has its own flash-point issues―chemistry and poison gas, physics and the atom bomb―and genetics has had a troubled history with race. As Jonathan Marks reveals, this dangerous
relationship rumbles on to this day, still leaving plenty of leeway for a belief in the basic natural inequality of races.
The eugenic science of the early twentieth century and the commodified genomic science of today are unified by the mistaken belief that human races are naturalistic categories. Yet their boundaries are
founded neither in biology nor in genetics and, not being a formal scientific concept, race is largely not accessible to the scientist. As Marks argues, race can only be grasped through the humanities: historically,
experientially, politically.
This wise, witty essay explores the persistence and legacy of scientific racism, which misappropriates the authority of science and undermines it by converting it into a social weapon.
«Jonathan Marks skillfully guides us through the ignominious peaks and ideological nadirs of scientific racism, revealing race as a science fiction with little more empirical credence than creationism. This
most accessible book should be read by anyone seeking to understand how science was, and continues to be, used in the service of racism.» – Alondra Nelson, Columbia University and author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. How science invented race
3. Science, race, and genomics
4. Racism and biomedical science
5. What we know, and why it matters
