05/13/2019
“The answers are not in our blood, but they are in us,” proposes science journalist Saini (Inferior) in this often brilliant critique of “race science,” the academic attempt to explain inequality between different ethnic groups via biology rather than sociology. Science has, in the past, not just been co-opted by racists, she observes. A number of scientists willingly played a role in abhorrent movements such as Nazism and American eugenics. She observes that, in the 19th century, Darwinism “legitimized racism, rather than quashing it,” by suggesting that, though all humans share a common ancestor, some ancestral groups—such as Europeans—are more evolved than others. More recently, she finds that the National Institutes of Health policy, since 1993, of requiring clinical trials to ask about the racial identity of participants, intended to increase the diversity of those included, has had the “unintended consequence of driving researchers to use , hunting for gaps” between different groups. Occasionally a line in this book misfires. The science enthusiasts who will constitute much of its audience will object, for instance, when Saini asserts, “There is no authenticity except the authenticity of personal experience.” But, just as clearly, this is an important and, in an era of rising racial tensions, must-read book, especially for those most sure they do not need to read it. (May)
★ 2019-03-17
The racist science behind white supremacy.
"The cancerous surge in nationalism and racism around the world has taken many of us by surprise," writes British science writer Saini (Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, 2017). Sadly, as the author shows in this superb study, it should not be so surprising. There have always been scientists prepared to argue that skin color, or brain structure, or our genes, or whatever, indicates the "innate superiority" of whites. This deeply researched and unsettling book blends history, interviews, and the author's personal experiences growing up as an Indian girl in a white working-class section of London. Saini traces the history of modern ideas regarding race since the era of European colonialism, when white Europeans were deemed "better" than others. As she notes, it is "perfectly possible for prominent scientists to be racist….Science is always shaped by the time and the place it is carried out in." The author recounts the racist thinking of crackpot and respectable scientists—past and present—going back to Enlightenment practitioners who argued that nonwhites were inferior. She describes the popular human zoos that displayed people in cages at world's fairs, beginning in the 1800s, and the "well-to-do, gentlemanly race scientists" like Reginald Ruggles Gates (1882-1962), who have held forth over the years. After World War II, race science fell out of favor but soon resurfaced in genetics and other fields that studied human differences. Funding from the Pioneer Fund and others made possible the blatantly racist Mankind Quarterly (1961-present) and the research in Charles Murray's controversial book The Bell Curve (1994). Saini also covers ancestry testing, American exceptionalism, and "black" genes and health. The "virulent racism" of today's social media, right-wing websites, and in mainstream discourse prompted a 2017 Nature editorial against the use of science to justify prejudice.
An important and timely reminder that race is "a social construct" with "no basis in biology."
A Best Science Book of the Year: Smithsonian Magazine · NPR · Library Journal
“An important and timely reminder that race is ‘a social construct’ with ‘no basis in biology.’”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“A well-argued, timely, sobering wake-up call for those who believe science is always objective and apolitical. Highly recommended for academic researchers, journalists, and general science readers alike.”
—Library Journal, Starred Review
“[A] brilliant critique of ‘race science’ . . . this is an important and, in an era of rising racial tensions, must-read book, especially for those most sure they do not need to read it.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Superior: The Return of Race Science makes the compelling case that scientific racism is as prevalent as it has ever been, and explores the way such backward beliefs have continued to evolve and persist. And it couldn’t be more timely.”
—Bitch
“A rigorously researched and reported journey from the Enlightenment through nineteenth-century imperialism and twentieth-century eugenics to the stealthy revival of race science in the twenty-first century.”
—Financial Times
“In Superior, Saini expertly chronicles the broader social forces that have reinvigorated race science . . . . For such a weighty topic, Superior is a surprisingly easy-to-read blend of science reporting, cultural criticism, and personal reflection.”
—Slate
“Whether you think of racist science as bad science, evil science, alt-right science, or pseudoscience, why would any contemporary scientist imagine that gross inequality is a fact of nature, rather than of political history? Angela Saini’s Superior connects the dots, laying bare the history, continuity, and connections of modern racist science, some more subtle than you might think. This is science journalism at its very best!”
—Jonathan Marks, author of Tales of the Ex-Apes: How We Think About Human Evolution
“Angela Saini’s investigative and narrative talents shine in Superior, her compelling look at racial biases in science past and present. The result is both a crystal-clear understanding of why race science is so flawed, and why science itself is so vulnerable to such deeply troubling fault lines in its approach to the world around us—and to ourselves.”
—Deborah Blum, author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
“Some writers have tackled the sordid history of race science previously, but none have gone so deep under the skin of the subject as Angela Saini in Superior. In her deceptively relaxed writing style, Saini patiently leads readers through the intellectual minefields of ‘scientific’ racism. She plainly exposes the conscious and unconscious biases that have led even some of our most illustrious scientists astray.”
—Michael Balter, author of The Goddess and the Bull
“In this essential book, Angela Saini deftly shows how science and racism have long been intertwined, why that pernicious history continues to this day, and why ‘race science’ is so deeply flawed. Deeply researched, masterfully written, and sorely needed, Superior is an exceptional work by one of the world’s best science writers.”
—Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
“Angela Saini’s Superior: The Return of Race Science is nothing short of a remarkable, brilliant, and erudite exploration of what we believe about the racialized differences among our human bodies. Saini takes readers on a walking tour through science, art, history, geography, nostalgia and personal revelation in order to unpack many of the most urgent debates about human origins, and about the origin myths of racial hierarchies. This beautifully written book will change the way you see the world.”
—Jonathan Metzl, author of Dying of Whiteness
Narrator Hannah Melbourn helps listeners follow a dizzying set of historical attempts to prove differences between the races and the inferiority of many—aspects of which continue to this day. Her smooth sophistication sounds both scholarly and approachable as she deals with the author’s blending of personal details, scientific data, and historical facts. Overall, she achieves a perfect balance between an academic and a friendly tone in debunking race science. This well-paced title is packed with scientific history that nonfiction fans will want to listen to in short bursts so as to carefully process the material. M.R. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Narrator Hannah Melbourn helps listeners follow a dizzying set of historical attempts to prove differences between the races and the inferiority of many—aspects of which continue to this day. Her smooth sophistication sounds both scholarly and approachable as she deals with the author’s blending of personal details, scientific data, and historical facts. Overall, she achieves a perfect balance between an academic and a friendly tone in debunking race science. This well-paced title is packed with scientific history that nonfiction fans will want to listen to in short bursts so as to carefully process the material. M.R. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
