NPR’s science blog Cosmos & Culture has a post up about a new book on scientific racism and population genetics,…in which biological anthropologist Barbara King reviews the new book Is Science Racist by anthropologist Jonathan Marks…[It] starts off with a premise that took me aback:
Science is racist when it permits scientists who advance racist ideas to exist and to thrive institutionally.” This is a strong set of claims, and Marks uses numerous examples to support them. For example, a 2014 book by science writer Nicholas Wade used genes and race to explain…”why African-Americans are allegedly more violent than whites….
Huh. So the first example of racist science is Nicholas Wade, who is … not actually a scientist. And whose 2014 book inspired a panel of 139 evolutionary geneticists…to sign a letter to the New York Times saying that Wade was wrong.
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The history of racism in the U.S. and around the world makes it vital to provide careful context for every study of human genetics…Biology does have a mixed record on providing that context…But evolutionary geneticists are, in fact, wrestling with this history
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: NPR’s muddled take on scientific racism and direct-to-consumer genetics
