The Emperor's New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium - Hardcover

Graves Jr., Joseph L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081352847X ISBN 13: 9780813528472

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 2001

Synopsis

 In this groundbreaking book, Joseph Graves traces the development of biological thought about human genetic diversity. Greek philosophy, social Darwinism, New World colonialism, the eugenics movement, intelligence testing biases, and racial health fallacies are just a few of the topics he addresses. Graves argues that racism has persisted in our society because adequate scientific reasoning has not entered into the equation. He champions the scientific method and explains how we may properly ask scientific questions about the nature of population differentiation and how (if at all) we may correlate that diversity to observed human behavior. He also cautions us to think critically about scientific findings that have historically been misused in controversies over racial differences in intelligence heritability, criminal behavior, disease predisposition, and other traits. According to Graves, this country cannot truly address its racial problems until people understand the empirical evidence behind this truth that separate human races do not exist. With the biological basis for race removed, racism becomes an ideology, one that can and must be deleted.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In this groundbreaking book, Joseph Graves traces the development of thought about human genetic diversity. He argues that racism has persisted in our society because adequate scientific reasoning has not entered into the equation. Graves champions the scientific method, and explains how we may properly ask questions about the nature of population differentiation and how (if at all) we may correlate that diversity to differences in human capacity and behavior. He also cautions us to think critically about scientific findings that have historically been misused in controversies over racial differences in intelligence heritability, criminal behavior, disease predisposition, and other traits. Greek philosophy, social Darwinism, New World colonialism, the eugenics movement, intelligence testing biases, and racial health fallacies are just a few of the topics he addresses.

According to Graves, this country cannot truly address its racial problems until people understand that separate human races do not exist empirically. With the biological basis for race removed, racism becomes an ideology, one that can and must be expunged.

About the Author:

Joseph L. Graves Jr. is a professor of evolutionary biology with appointments in the departments of Life Sciences and African American Studies at Arizona State University's West and Main Campuses.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 081352847X
• ISBN 13: 9780813528472
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 252