Summary
Contents
This unique collection brings together selections from the work that has defined our understanding of racism. Every significant contribution to the analysis of racism over the past 50 years are comprised in this one book, including extracts from Myrdal's An American Dilemma, Cox's Marxist theory, Carmichael and Hamilton's introduction of the term ‘institutional racism’ and recent textual analyses. Ordered chronologically, so that the reader can work through the narrative of changes coherently, each contribution is introduced by the editors and the whole collection is bound together by introductory and concluding chapters. The result is an unparalleled teaching and study resource. No other book presents the highlights, range and complexity of the various attempts to unravel racism, in such a comprehensive and panoramic way.
Chapter 36: The Science and Politics of Racial Research
The Science and Politics of Racial Research
The authors of studies showing racial and genetic differences to justify social and economic differences between blacks and whites have sometimes been accused of perpetuating racist ideas. Certain studies presented as objective by some of the most prestigious intellectuals and educators in US society over many decades, have been utilized specifically for political purposes according to William H. Tucker. The author contends that sponsors and scholars participating in these studies may have been racists or civil libertarians and social liberals. Studies purporting to show how genetic difference is the basis for social status (and therefore racism is secondary or insignificant) have only served the political aims of those interests in power ...
