The Science and Politics of Racial ResearchUnlike other critiques of the scientific literature on racial difference, The Science and Politics of Racial Research argues that there has been no scientific purpose or value to the study of innate differences in ability between groups. William Tucker shows how, for more than a century, scientific investigations of supposedly innate differences in ability between races have been used to rationalize social and political inequality as the unavoidable consequence of natural differences. Tucker structures his work chronologically, with each chapter describing how research on genetic difference was used in a particular era to support a particular political agenda. He begins with the use of science to support slavery in the mid-nineteenth century and ends with the effects of Jensenism in the 1970s. Highlights include one chapter describing a little-known but concerted attempt by a group of scientists to overturn the Brown v. Board of Education decision on the basis of "expert testimony" about racial differences, and another that presents a review of the eugenics movement in the twentieth century. The author also considers how to balance the rights and responsibilities of scientists, concluding that one generally neglected method is to strengthen the rights of research subjects. |
Contents
Helping Along the Process Social Science and Race in the Nineteenth Century | 9 |
For a Twentieth the Cost Sir Francis Galton and the Origin of Eugenics | 37 |
Applying Science to Society The Eugenics Movement in the Early Twentieth Century | 54 |
Science Giveth and It Taketh Away The Scientific Controversy over Integration | 138 |
Unaided by Eugenic Foresight The Controversy over Jensenism | 180 |
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A. R. Jensen ability American Arthur Jensen Association attempt average behavior biological brain C. B. Davenport Cattell civil claimed concluded controversy Court Davenport defective differences in intelligence equal ethical eugenicists eugenics evidence evolutionary example explained Eysenck fact Galton Garrett genes geneticists German Goddard H. J. Eysenck hereditary Heredity heritability Hitler human IAAEE Ibid immigrants improvement individual informed Ingle insisted integration intellectual issue Jewish Jews Journal Laughlin Lenz Mankind Quarterly McDougall measures mental moral National nature Nazi Negro Nordic observed percent persons Pioneer Fund political population prejudice problem produced professor Psychology Putnam Quoted race Race and Intelligence racial differences Racial Hygiene racist Rassenhygiene Report result Review scientific Scientific Racism scores segregation segregationists Shockley Shockley's Social Darwinism Social Darwinist social scientists society southern sterilization subjects superior tion traits University Western Destiny wrote York