The Myth of Race

By: Robert Wald Sussman

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Although eugenics is now widely discredited, some groups and individuals claim a new scientific basis for old racist assumptions. Pondering the continuing influence of racist research and thought, despite all evidence to the contrary, Robert Wald Sussman explains why - when it comes to race - too many people still mistake bigotry for science.

©2014 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2018 Tantor

An important look at race, genetics, & politics

The belief in race as an objective, biological reality has been very strong, pervasive, and significant in much of public policy. Yet scientists say it is simply not real. There is neither very much genetic variability in humans compared to other species, even our closest relatives, nor is it distributed in humans in anything like the consistent patterns that, in other species, define the biological concept of races.

Humans are all one species, with no subspecies, no biological races.

Yet the idea is powerful and persistent. Robert Wald Sussman lays out the history of the idea of races, and early explanations for differences. He works through the ideas of pre-Adamites (separate, earlier creations of non-white humans, also called polygenesis), and degeration (the idea that humans are all descendants of Adam, but non-whites are degenerated forms, also called monogenesis.)

Monogenesis at least left open the possibility that differences might be environmental, and perhaps be overcome, but that was often an inconvenient, and thus unpopular, idea.

He also lays out the completely unscientific nature of these ideas. Humans are all descended from the same source, and as noted above, there's very little genetic variation in humans compared to other species. (A friend involved with English shepherds and responsible breeding commented that, by dog breeding standards, humans have a terrifying COI, i.e., coefficient of inbreeding.)

Sussman describes the intertwined effects of the pseudo-scientific theories of racial origins and racial inferiority, and the political theories and policies that grew from them--including the rise of the eugenics movement in the US and Germany. Influences flowed back and forth between Germany and the US, getting worse and worse.

At the same time, the rise of real genetic science, and the development of cultural anthropology, also began to undermine those theories.

It's a fascinating and alarming account, and the racial theories are still with us today, affecting today's policies on immigration, education, health care, and the social safety net. It's well written, read well by the narrator, and tremendously informative.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fascinating and informative

This book broadened my understanding of racism and of the forces behind it. A must read

Great

Really good when looking at why Race is a thing and where it came from.