Superior: The Return of Race Science
Why Read Superior
Superior is a compelling mix of investigative journalism and science reporting. Angela Saini expertly connects the dots from the dark origins of racism to racist research that persists even in the face of scientific consensus rejecting the very concept of race. Her writing is engaging, the evidence shocking and the insidious ties to wider society most definitely alarming. An absolute must read that lays out how "Science is always shaped by the time and place it is carried out."
Review
Every part of your upbringing makes you believe that you are different. *
This feeling of being different, yet belonging may be what motivates many of us to delve into our ancestry, even mobilising science to decode our genetic past. But what can science actually tell us about that? Pretty much nothing beyond what might be found in a typical family tree. Certainly not much about our racial identity. Race, like a family tree, belongs more to culture than to science.
In the book *Superior: The Return of Race Science*, Angela Saini explores what science tells us about race and, more importantly, what it does not. As she outlines in great detail, science can tell us about ancestry, but race, as we usually think of it, is not something determined by DNA. There is no gene that all members of a racial group, and only that group, share. There are some statistical relationships that arise through simple inheritance, but you cannot, for example, do a genetic test to determine skin colour. More than 90% of human difference exists between one person and the next, rather than between major population groups around the world.
Yet, in face of this, possibly driven by a need to prove their own superiority, there are still researchers toiling away at uncovering a scientific basis for race. Operating at the outer margins of science, Saini shows how this small group has little influence within the establishment, but surprising clout outside of it.
*They have managed to build a thin veneer of scientific credibility that comes from getting published and cited almost entirely by publishing and citing each other.*
The problem is not that race science creeps into mainstream science. The main journal the practitioners use has a very low impact factor, which is the measure of how often its papers are cited by others. The journal in question’s impact factor is less than 1, versus *Nature*, with an impact factor of about 40. That means that hardly anyone outside of this small group cites their work.
The problems arise when this work is cited by people *outside* of the scientific community. People who have no tools to judge the research other than by the sole criterion that it appears in a peer reviewed journal. It must be said that peer review is a criterion often offered up by scientists as a measure of credibility. Of course, those scientists know that the *peers* are key - *who* is reviewing the work. In this case, the race scientists are all reviewing their own work. There is no outside measure of credibility. Non-scientists, or scientists working in other areas, quote this work and point to the peer-reviewed journal in which it appears as evidence that the conclusions are properly “scientific.” Often with a political motivation.
Mainstream science does not escape. Studies that were never intended to be used as a basis for racial discrimination become judged and quoted that way. The effect is that mainstream science, in particular genetics, has had to become extremely careful about the lines of inquiry it pursues, lest the work become further ammunition for those who wish to, as Saini puts it, weaponize science. This has been seen by some as stifling inquiry.
About the Book
Superior tells the disturbing story of how belief in biological racial differences persists in the world of science.
After the horrors of the Nazi regime in World War II, mainstream science turned its back on eugenics and the study of racial difference. The vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas, yet some managed to survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real.
As our understanding of complex human traits grows, the hope of finding simple genetic differences between “races” which might help explain differing rates of disease, poverty or test scores, or simply to justify cultural assumptions, stubbornly persists.
Superior is a rigorous, much-needed examination of the insidious and destructive nature of race science — and a powerful reminder that, biologically, we are all far more alike than we are different.
About the Author
Angela Saini is an award-winning British science journalist and broadcaster. She presents science programmes on the BBC, and her writing has appeared in New Scientist, The Sunday Times, National Geographic and Wired. Her latest book, Superior: the Return of Race Science, was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and named a book of the year by The Telegraph, Nature and Financial Times. Her previous book, Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong, has been translated into thirteen languages. Angela has a Masters in Engineering from the University of Oxford and was a Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Praise for Superior
“A well-argued, timely, sobering wake-up call for those who believe science is always objective and apolitical. Highly recommended for academic researchers, journalists, and general science readers alike.”
— Library Journal, Starred Review
“[A] brilliant critique of ‘race science’ . . . this is an important and, in an era of rising racial tensions, must-read book, especially for those most sure they do not need to read it.”— Publishers Weekly
“Superior: The Return of Race Science makes the compelling case that scientific racism is as prevalent as it has ever been, and explores the way such backward beliefs have continued to evolve and persist. And it couldn’t be more timely.”— Bitch
Find a Copy
We invite you to acquire a copy of Superior from your local library, or consider supporting local Black-owned bookstores in Canada.
Further Reading
Edward Struzik, author of RCIScience Fall Reads Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future, outlines what the history of fire can tell us about the present wildfire situation and our ability to deal with future fire events.