• A concept developed in the 19th century

• Provided the biological justification for social inequalities through the notion that people at the bottom of the political and social hierarchy are biologically inferior. 

• was used to justify the enslavement and colonization of people .


University of California, Berkeley

⇛Racial prejudice existed before racial theories were developed in the natural and social  sciences. Science is not free from social and political biases because it is done by people.



Science and Racism

Gould, Stephen J. The Mismeasure of Man. W W Norton, 1996. 

The Mismeasure of Man

Biological Determinism

• an example of scientific racism

•Dr. Cartwright, a Louisiana surgeon and psychologist came up with this  disease category as a diagnosis  of  run away enslaved people 
 
•''the disease causing slaves to run away." 

Drapetomania

•example of scientific racism

• the measurement of the skull and its contents, was used by anthropologists and biologists to claim an innate mental difference among the different human "races."

Craniometry

•IQ, biological determinism, racial essentialism, etc. arguments continue to be used by far right politicians and online groups to make racism claims and advocate for racist policies.

Rising re-emergence of scientific racism in alt right communities and social media

 •  the concept that racial or ethnic groups possess specific traits and behaviors unique to them


racial essentialism

• measure of "intelligence"  and even morality that is considered inborn and inherent
•used to argue the mental superiority of white people over non whites
•used to argue that  because black people on average have lower scores, they must be innately less intelligent, inherently fit for low paying, labor intensive jobs, and innately violent and criminal 

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