Existing comment:
1910-45: The rise of eugenics:
In the early 1900s, many scientists worldwide support eugenics as a tool to help speed human progress. Eugenicists believe in controlling reproduction to improve the germ plasm of the population, what today we would call the human gene pool. In the US, some eugenicists worry that miscegenation, or "race-mixing," could degrade the American population.
In Nazi Germany, racism and eugenic ideals fuel to the Holocaust. Between 1933 and 1945, Nazis murder more than six million Jews and an untold number of Roma (Gypsies) in programs to exterminate those seen as racially inferior. Nazi extermination policies also target Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, those with mental and physical disabilities, homosexuals, and political and religious dissidents.
1952: UNESCO Statement on Race:
In reaction to the Nazi genocide of the 1940s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) organizes an international group of scientists to create a "scientific" definition of race -- one they hope cannot be used for harmful ends. Scientists wrestle with this statement in two separate meetings amid disagreements about how to define race.
"The unity of mankind from both the biological and social viewpoints is the main thing. To recognize this and to act accordingly is the first requirement of modern man."
-- UNESCO, What is Race? (1952)
1969: IQ again:
In an article in the Harvard Educational Review, psychologist Arthur Jenses claims that genetic differences, not socioeconomic and political discrimination, cause racial differences in intelligence test scores. Jensen's claims draw intense criticism from many members of the academic community and the public at large, but federal lawmakers use Jensen's work to justify funding cuts for educational programs.
1972: Genetics and race:
In "The Apportionment of Human Diversity," a pioneering analysis of genetic data for many different blood types, evolutionary biologist and geneticist Richard Lewontin finds that the genetic differences among "races" are small compared to the genetic diversity among members of a single "race." Subsequent studies affirm these results.
"Lewontin's conclusion went against the popular ideology of race, and for that reason was of utmost significance... The implication... is that so-called racial variation is a tiny issue to someone interested in the study of general human variation."
-- Jonathan Marks, "What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee" (2002) |