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Science and Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience

"Scientists are part of their social context. Their ideas about what race is are not simply scientific ones, are not simply driven by the data that they are working with. That it's also informed by the societies in which they live." -Evelyn Hammond

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article
A Racialized Medical Genomics: Shiny, Bright and Wrong
by Robert Wallace
Medical researcher Robert Wallace rebuts assertions that race is biological and argues against the creation and marketing of different medicines based on a patient's race.
interview
Evelynn Hammonds
A look at 19th century race science, race and medicine, and how scientists are influenced by their social context.

Evelynn Hammonds is currently (2019) Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of The Logic of Difference: A History of Race in Science and Medicine in the United States.

article
The Misuse of Race in Medical Diagnosis
by Richard Garcia
Pediatrician Richard S. Garcia cautions against using race to diagnose patients, providing examples of children who were misdiagnosed due to their appearance and went years before their conditions were known.
article
The Race Pit
by Alan H. Goodman
Professor Alan Goodman explains how biological anthropologists continue to confuse and misunderstand race, which harms that field of study and provides ammo for racists.
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Naturalizing Social Differences
The biology becomes an excuse for social differences.
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The Difference Between Us: Racial Classification as Cultural
Think about race in its universality. Where is your measurement device? We sometimes do it by skin color, other people may do it by hair texture... There is no way to measure race.
expert connection
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The Evolution of Human Biology & Genomics: Interview with Leslea Hlusko
Leslea Hlusko, Professor of Integrative Biology, discusses new research in genomics in regards to human variation, and relates it to the science presented in the film, and outlines the important role human biologists can play in engaging with social issues and misperceptions about human variation.
episode 1
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Perceived Racial Differences in Athletic Ability
The idea of race as biology is persistent on America's playing fields, but it is an idea that is not true
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2020 panel discussion on Race—The Power of an Illusion, Part I
On Friday, Sept. 11, 2020 we hosted the first in a three-part series of events which consisted of a screening of Race—The Power of an Illusion, Part I: The Difference Between Us followed by a live panel discussion.
article
Unlikely mix – Race, biology and drugs
by Troy Duster
Sociologist Troy Duster warns of attempts by pharmaceutical companies to market certain drugs to specific racial groups, exposing them as apparent marketing ploys with potentially dangerous consequences.
Q&A
Are there distinct traits or characteristics of each race?
episode 1
Q&A
How are subjects selected for drug studies by race?
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Q&A
How do you explain varying levels of success and achievement by race?
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Q&A
Aren't racial differences hard wired?
episode 1
interview
Stephen Jay Gould
Why did different skin colors evolve? Where did the term Caucasian come from? Are scientists biased by their beliefs?

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was one of the foremost natural historians of our time and wrote many books, including The Mismeasure of Man.

interview
Audrey Smedley
How is race a modern concept? Why were Africans enslaved? What role did 19th century ethnologists and race scientists play in shaping our understanding of race?

Audrey Smedley is currently (2019) Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University in anthropology and African-American studies. She is the author of Race in North America: Origins of a Worldview.

interview
Jonathan Marks
Why doesn't it make sense to classify people into races? How do we sort through all our confusion about genetics, biology and things like athletic ability? Where did our traditional notions of race come from?

Jonathan Marks is currently (2019) Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Tales of the ex-Apes: How We Think About Human Evolution, and Human Biodiversity and What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee.

interview
Alan Goodman
What are our assumptions about biology and race? What's the difference between looking at race as a social idea and a scientific one? What other explanations exist for why we look different?

Alan Goodman is currently (2019) Professor of Biological Anthropology at Hampshire College, and co-editor of Genetic Nature / Culture: Anthropology and Science Beyond the Cultural Divide and Building a New Bio-Cultural Synthesis.

Q&A
What role should race play in health research and medicine?
episode 1
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Copyright 2018-2019, California Newsreel and Regents of the University of California. This website was jointly produced by California Newsreel, the Othering & Belonging Institute, the U.C. Berkeley Library, and the American Cultures Center at U.C. Berkeley, based on original material created by California Newsreel in 2003.