How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference

by Adam Rutherford

It is easier to fixate on one particular phenotype, such as skin color, or one individual gene, such as ACTN3, or one metric, such as IQ, and hang all your prejudices—conscious or otherwise—on them, rather than scrutinize the deeper reality. It is easier to apply “common sense” arguments, such as that slavery bred natural athletes, than recognize that life histories, evolution, and genetics are profoundly tricky to unpick. And it is certainly damnably easier to use new genetic techniques to see patterns in data that superficially reinforce stereotypes rather than apply fiendishly difficult statistics to show that they are not meaningful. All of these wretched traps are rooted in science, and demonstrate bad scientific practice, but they are views commonly held by people who are fixated on finding biological evidence to support their ideas about race.