Skin Deep: Journeys in the Divisive Science of Race

by Gavin Evans

Overview

Racial differences are rooted in biological reality, right? That’s certainly what a small group of anthropologists, psychologists and pundits would have you believe. Portraying themselves as brave defenders of the inconvenient truth, this group took the revival of ‘race science’ from alt-right online message boards into mainstream academic journals. They seek to justify raging social inequalities from poverty to incarceration rates with a simple message: some people are just born to be poor. There’s just one problem... race science isn’t real.

The first Europeans had dark skin and black curly hair. Culture was born in Africa, not Western Europe. Gavin Evans examines the latest research on how intelligence develops and laying out new discoveries in genetics, palaeontology, archaeology and anthropology to unearth the truth about our shared past. Skin Deep stands up to the pseudo-science deployed to justify colonial rule, the apartheid regime and the vast inequalities that persist today. As race dominates the political agenda, it’s time to put the hateful myths about it to bed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786076229
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.85(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Gavin Evans was born in London and grew up in Cape Town, where he became intensely involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. He studied economic history and law before completing a PhD in political studies, writing extensively on race and racism. He lectures in the Culture and Media department at Birkbeck College, London, and broadcasts regularly for the BBC World Service and is a keen marathon runner.

What People are Saying About This

comedian and author Robert Newman

‘Well-researched and richly rewarding, Skin Deep methodically dismantles the quackery and junk science that seeks to justify economic inequality by appeals to racial difference. Given the insidious rise of pseudoscientific racism, Skin Deep is timely and urgent, its patient scholarship a fine antidote to the quackocracy’s shrill rhetoric. In this spirit it will appeal to readers who enjoyed Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science and I Think You’ll Find It’s A Bit More Complicated Than That.’

Jonathan Bard

‘This book contains a wealth of information, old and new, about race and its underlying genetics. Everyone interested in the distinction between knowledge and prejudice in this sensitive and challenging subject should read it.’

Saul Dubow

‘Punchy and perceptive, Evans’ passionate and wide-ranging debunking of hereditarian views of race…deserves a wide readership.’

author of Out of Eden: The Peopling of the Wor Stephen Oppenheimer

‘Excellent! In Skin Deep, Gavin Evans lucidly and comprehensively demolishes the rationale and evidence of the so-called “race science” employed by some of our most privileged and respected scholars.’

Editorial Reviews

05/27/2019

In this extensively researched and clearly articulated work of popular scholarship, journalist Evans (Mapreaders and Multitaskers: Men, Women, Nature, Nurture) provides antiracists with responses to outdated, disproven, but nevertheless still-often-aired racist ideas. Evans dismantles a wide variety of claims, including that adapting to cold climates made Europeans more advanced than their African relatives, that Ashkenazi Jews are smarter than other races, and even that white men can’t jump. The main focus of the book is on various weak claims about race and intelligence: Evans ably demonstrates that the research meant to support race-based claims often confuses correlation with causation and ignores that more genetic difference exists within a given race than between members of different races. He spends a full chapter recounting the history of and rebutting the arguments of Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s 1994 book The Bell Curve and pushes back on other popular thinkers who endorse the studies he rejects, including Sam Harris, Andrew Sullivan, and Steven Pinker. This isn’t a page-turner, and it requires the airing of offensive theories in order to contradict them, but, for readers “who instinctively reject racism but who have not known how to fight back when confronted with its claims to scientific authority,” this is an extremely useful resource. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

‘A world in thrall to far-right politics and ethnic nationalism demands vigilance. We must guard science against abuse and reinforce the essential unity of the human species. I am grateful that in Evans we have someone conscientious, brave and willing to do that.’

Nature

‘This book contains a wealth of information, old and new, about race and its underlying genetics. Everyone interested in the distinction between knowledge and prejudice in this sensitive and challenging subject should read it.’

Jonathan Bard

‘Give it up for Gavin Evans’s thorough and timely teardown of racial myths... This triumphant volume debunks such popular fallacies as race-based IQ differences, jumping genes, and predictable variations in brain size and development across different – and arbitrary – racial categories... The best defense against misinformation is knowledge, and Skin Deep is an invaluable tool to add to your arsenal.’

Foreword reviews

‘Excellent! In Skin Deep, Gavin Evans lucidly and comprehensively demolishes the rationale and evidence of the so-called “race science” employed by some of our most privileged and respected scholars.’

Stephen Oppenheimer

‘a thorough overview and detailed critique of contemporary "race science," and a poignant description and assessment of scientific racism... an easy-to-read overview of the latest academic research in genetics, evolutionary anthropology, archaeology, and paleontology that explains disparities in human intelligence... but not in terms of the construct “race.” As a seasoned science journalist, Evans explains complex concepts and theories with clarity and precision, and he brings moments of levity to this challenging subject matter.’

Choice

‘With the probability that existing political and social tensions will be exacerbated by climate change, rising migration and conflicts over resources, these kinds of books are sorely needed.’

Literary Review

‘Well-researched and richly rewarding, Skin Deep methodically dismantles the quackery and junk science that seeks to justify economic inequality by appeals to racial difference. Given the insidious rise of pseudoscientific racism, Skin Deep is timely and urgent, its patient scholarship a fine antidote to the quackocracy’s shrill rhetoric. In this spirit it will appeal to readers who enjoyed Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science and I Think You’ll Find It’s A Bit More Complicated Than That.’

Robert Newman

06/21/2019

Focusing mostly on major controversies, this debut by Evans covers the study of race among 20th-century scientists, especially in regards to intelligence. The book addresses prominent subjects such as Charles Darwin, the Bell Curve, and IQ tests, as well as publications and incidents not widely known beyond the academic community. Often, the author dissects the unethical methodologies used by some race scientists. Much of the historical material is already covered by Stephen Jay Gould in The Mismeasure of Man, and readers familiar with that text will find a great deal of overlap. Evans includes some contemporary analysis of racial science in the present, particularly pertaining to the alt-right and the election of Donald Trump. However, more attention to the impact of race science on society, rather than a critical analysis of its methods, would do more to set this entry apart from Gould's previous work. VERDICT An easy read for casual audiences. Those without much prior knowledge of the development of racial science and where it stands today will find this to be a thorough historical introduction.—Sarah Schroeder, Univ. of Washington Bothell

Library Journal

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