Racism, not race : answers to frequently asked questions

Racism, not race Answers to frequently asked questions

Joseph L. Graves, 1955-

Book - 2022

"We talk a lot about race, yet we rarely focus on the underlying question of what race is and its connections to racism. Conversations about race can be uncomfortable and confusing, but this is resolvable if we ask the right questions and focus on clear answers. What, exactly, is race? Joseph L. Graves and Alan H. Goodman illuminate the idea of race so that people who want to confront the topic of racial injustice can do so with the necessary conceptual tools. Most people think race is real, they argue, and it is. But race is not real in the way that most of us have grown up to think of it. Race is not natural, fixed, or based on biology. Instead, they continue, racism created the idea of race, the idea of race has real effects, and wh...ile human genetic variation is biologically real, it is not race. The book is based on evidence from biological and social science. It is composed of twelve question-begging chapters, which engage topics such as the origins of race, race and genetics, the forms of racism, race and health, race and ability, institutional racism, DNA and ancestry testing, "race mixing," race and politics, and what it means to be an antiracist. The book is ideally suited for people want to understand more about what race is, where it came from, and how to confront its pernicious effects, in a format that is clear, direct, and can be used as a model to defend one's antiracist position"--

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Subjects
Racism.
Race.
Published
New York : Columbia University Press [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Joseph L. Graves, 1955- (author)
Other Authors
Alan H. Goodman (author)
Physical Description
xxiii, 290 pages : illustrations, charts ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-277) and index.
ISBN
9780231200660
  • List of Questions
  • Preface
  • Introduction What Are Race, Racism, and Human Variation?
  • Chapter 1. How Did Race Become Biological?
  • Chapter 2. Everything You Wanted to Know About Genetics and Race
  • Chapter 3. Everything You Wanted to Know About Racism
  • Chapter 4. Why Do Races Differ in Disease Incidence?
  • Chapter 5. Life History, Aging, and Mortality
  • Chapter 6. Athletics, Bodies, and Abilities
  • Chapter 7. Intelligence, Brains, and Behaviors
  • Chapter 8. Driving While Black and Other Deadly Realities of Institutional and Systemic Racism
  • Chapter 9. DNA and Ancestry Testing
  • Chapter 10. Race Names and "Race Mixing"
  • Chapter 11. A World Without Racism?
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

The racism that underpins right-wing populism reveals that racialized thinking has not been excised from the body politic. Far from it, the mainstreaming of replacement theory by ideologues such as Tucker Carlson points to the fraught state of race relations today. Though numerous books offer insights into this dilemma, there is no book quite like this one by Graves (North Carolina A&T State Univ.) and Goodman (Hampshire College)--the former an evolutionary biologist and the latter a biological anthropologist. This combination allows them to address the topic from both a social and a biological framework, laying out the complex, historically changing character of the relationship between the two. The book is structured around 98 questions that are simply stated and addressed in a cogent, direct manner that reveals the authors' deep and sophisticated learning. In addition to questions one would expect, such as "Is anti-Semitism a form of racism?" there are surprises such as "Are Finns the world's best athletes?" This book should be widely assigned in university classrooms across several disciplines. It also deserves to be a widely chosen book club selection. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. --Peter Kivisto, Augustana College (IL)

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Biologist Graves (The Race Myth) and biological anthropologist Goodman (Race: Are We So Different?) marshal data from genetics, medicine, and the social sciences in this insightful takedown of race as a matter of biology. In question-and-answer format, they detail the effects of race and racism on the health and socioeconomic status of marginalized people as seen in infant mortality rates, deaths from chronic diseases, and income inequality. Their questions cover historical matters ("Did the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians have a concept of race?" Short answer: no), hard science ("What explains human genetic differences?" In sum, mutation and migration), and practical concepts ("Are genetic ancestry and race the same thing?" Not according to Graves and Goodman). The authors show how racism has led to Black and brown people being subject to inaccurate stereotypes, and has also saddled them with health concerns, such as heart disease, being wrongly attributed to biological causes. The authors are most effective when they stick to their area of scientific expertise, and less so when they venture onto the well-worn territory covered by other anti-racist authors on general institutional reforms. Even so, this brings a new angle and an accessible approach to the ongoing reckoning with race in America. (Dec.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A relatable conversation about race that stands out from many other books on the always-relevant topic. By now, most readers are familiar with racial stereotypes such as "black don't crack" or "white men can't jump." However, few have bothered to examine their origins or consider them critically. Here, Graves Jr., a professor of biology, and Goodman, a professor of biological anthropology, tackle a wide variety of racial issues using science and statistics, with just enough emotion to keep readers engaged. Throughout, the authors debunk numerous accepted myths, such as biology being related to race. Instead, the authors focus on the role that genetic variation plays in determining specific characteristics, from eye color to one's predisposition to specific diseases. Defining raceas "a social classification based on assumptions about ancestry and appearance," Graves and Goodman find archaic religion and erroneous science as early culprits that paved the way for racist stereotypes and systems to exist, many of which continue to operate today. Using questions and answers and the life and social sciences to back their conclusions, the authors are unafraid to dig into a host of thorny issues ("Are 'Jews' a race? What about people of Italian and Irish descent?"), providing well-documented evidence to bolster their arguments. Their approach is a pleasing mix of broad and granular--e.g., "Why is it that you can almost always tell a Nigerian from a Norwegian, yet a Nigerian and a Norwegian do not genetically differ that much?" The authors also interrogate the murky concept of intelligence and how medical and judicial assumptions nurture environments in which racism assists in the degradation of communities of color. Similarly, they break down White supremacy, calling it "our time's big lie." Each chapter concludes with a summary about the subjects at hand, and the authors also include a call to action to tackle personal and communal racism head-on. An entertaining and informative read that will serve as a jumping-off point for countless discussions about racism. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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