![]() Across the world, humans share 99.9% of their DNA. Research has repeatedly shown that race is not a scientifically valid concept. Pivoting deftly from personal reflection to technical exposition, she now explores a similarly persistent taint: the search by some scientists for measurable biological differences between ‘races’, despite decades of studies yielding no supporting evidence. Saini’s celebrated 2017 Inferior investigated the troubling relationship between sexism and scientific research. That story spans the survival of German doctor Johann Blumenbach’s eighteenth-century regionally based characterization of five human ‘races’ (Caucasians, Mongolians, Ethiopians, Americans and Malays), and modern discussions about presumed correlations between race and intelligence. ![]() This overture to imperialism sets the stage for an eminently readable history lesson on the origins, rise, disavowal and resurgence of race research in Western science. In a reflection on power and conquest, Superior opens in the halls of London’s British Museum, among collections from Lower Nubia and ancient Egypt. In her latest book, Superior, Angela Saini investigates how the history and preservation of dubious science has justified and normalized the idea of hierarchies between ‘racial’ groups. Superior: The Return of Race Science Angela Saini Beacon (2019) Glass eyes of a type used in the twentieth century for ‘racial’ classification. ![]()
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