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256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 21, 2019
The power of nationalism is that it calls to the part of us that doesn’t want to accept being ordinary. It tells people that they are descended from greatness, that they have been genetically endowed with something special, something passed down to them over the generations. It attaches them to origin stories that have existed for hundreds of years, soaking into their subconscious, obscuring truth...Simply outstanding. Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story was also fantastic, but I think Saini has outdone herself here!
‘If you see the genetic markers today that are found in western Europe, people will see those in the past and continue referring to them as western European, even if they’re then also found in Siberia.’ It’s another example of an ‘indexing problem’, when the first available body of evidence influences subsequent thinking. Western researchers tend to have more access to European data because it’s on their doorstep, so later discoveries elsewhere in the world are often interpreted relative to these.Saini beautifully and effectively explains why "race" is not a biological category, but a social, cultural and political one. Scientists insistence to study race as biological has done extreme harm throughout history. First, as Saini explains, racial "difference" was believed to be "in the blood", while today many believe that it is genetic. As Saini frequently stresses, there are far more genetic variations within a "race" than there are between individuals of supposedly different races. There is a constant determination, within some sectors of the scientific community, that eventually they will find their proof of racial difference, that it'll be when the next form of technology comes into use, and the next, and the next...
...Americans cling to the idea of black exceptionalism when it comes to health may be that, in some way, the idea lets society off the hook. It places the blame for inequality at the foot of biology. If poor health today is intrinsic to black bodies and nothing to do with racism, it’s no one’s fault. ‘It says it’s not our organisation of society that’s somehow unfair or unjust or discriminatory. It’s not that we treat people badly. It’s not that we give people worse life chances,’ he says. ‘It’s just that these people have some genetic defect and it’s just the way they are.’It's disturbing and dispiriting, but Saini's collected evidence shows we cannot ignore this phenomenon any long. Race science was never history. It's still alive and here today.
It takes some mental acrobatics to be an intellectual racist in light of the scientific information we have today, but those who want to do it, will. Racists will find validation wherever they can, even if it means working a little harder than usual.