Science
Related: About this forumThe Disturbing Resilience of Scientific Racism
A new book explores how racist biases continue to maintain a foothold in research today
Nazi officials use calipers to measure an ethnic German's nose on January 1, 1941. The Nazis developed a pseudoscientific system of facial measurement that was supposedly a way of determining racial descent. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CORBIS / Corbis via Getty Images)
By Ramin Skibba
smithsonian.com
May 20, 2019
Scientists, including those who study race, like to see themselves as objectively exploring the world, above the political fray. But such views of scientific neutrality are naive, as study findings, inevitably, are influenced by the biases of the people conducting the work.
The American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois once wrote, The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. His words were borne out, in part, by science. It was the century when the scientifically backed enterprise of eugenicsimproving the genetic quality of white, European races by removing people deemed inferiorgained massive popularity, with advocates on both sides of the Atlantic. It would take the Holocaust to show the world the logical endpoint of such horrific ideology, discrediting much race-based science and forcing eugenics most hardline adherents into the shadows.
The post-war era saw scientists on the right-wing fringe find ways to cloak their racist views in more palatable language and concepts. And as Angela Saini convincingly argues in her new book, Superior: The Return of Race Science, published May 21 by Beacon Press, the problem of the color line still survives today in 21st-century science.
In her thoroughly researched book, Saini, a London-based science journalist, provides clear explanations of racist concepts while diving into the history of race science, from archaeology and anthropology to biology and genetics. Her work involved poring through technical papers, reports and books, and interviewing numerous scientists across various fields, sometimes asking uncomfortable questions about their research.
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/disturbing-resilience-scientific-racism-180972243/#uwvBIq6EdurUVXWH.99
wryter2000
(46,082 posts)The book is old now, but it shows the history of bias and outright faking of data in the pseudoscientific field of race and IQ. Definitely worth reading. The title of the book is deliberately sexist to point out the European male bias in the research.
I may have to buy this new book, too.
SCantiGOP
(13,874 posts)Objectivity is essential and necessary in science, but removing all bias from observation is nearly impossible for humans. Identifying it and taking it into account greatly enhances the scientific process.
wryter2000
(46,082 posts)I always discover a new way of looking at things. I'm so sad we lost him.