Skin Deep: Dispelling the Science of Race

The dark heart of race science… and why it’s nonsense.

Race science is nonsense – here's why
‘Excellent!... Gavin Evans lucidly and comprehensively demolishes the rationale and evidence of the so-called “race science”.’ Stephen Oppenheimer, author of Out of Eden

A small group of anthropologists, psychologists and pundits would have you believe racial differences are rooted in biological reality. Portraying themselves as brave defenders of the inconvenient truth, this group took the revival of ‘race science’ from alt-right online message boards into mainstream academic journals. They seek to justify raging social inequalities from poverty to incarceration rates with a simple message: some people are just born to be poor. There’s just one problem… race science isn’t real.

The first Europeans had dark skin and black curly hair. Culture was born in Africa, not Western Europe. Gavin Evans examines the latest research on how intelligence develops and laying out new discoveries in genetics, palaeontology, archaeology and anthropology to unearth the truth about our shared past. Skin Deep stands up to the pseudo-science deployed to justify colonial rule, the apartheid regime and the vast inequalities that persist today. As race dominates the political agenda, it’s time to put the hateful myths about it to bed.

‘We must guard science against abuse and reinforce the essential unity of the human species. I am grateful that in Evans we have someone conscientious, brave and willing to do that.’ Nature

Gavin Evans was born in London and grew up in Cape Town, where he became intensely involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. He studied economic history and law before completing a PhD in political studies, writing extensively on race and racism. He lectures in the Culture and Media department at Birkbeck College, London, and broadcasts regularly for the BBC World Service and is a keen marathon runner.