Originally posted by Darorinag
How does this relate to race? It does, in very obvious ways. Race has become the most controversial issue, and in being so, it has sparked censorship, political correctness and other not-so-tolerant practises against dissenters; and this is severely effecting academic freedom and TRUTH. Universities are no longer institutions that provide FACTUAL HIGHER EDUCATION. They are centres of nodding in agreement about politically correct views of the most controversial issues...
How does this relate to race? It does, in very obvious ways. Race has become the most controversial issue, and in being so, it has sparked censorship, political correctness and other not-so-tolerant practises against dissenters; and this is severely effecting academic freedom and TRUTH. Universities are no longer institutions that provide FACTUAL HIGHER EDUCATION. They are centres of nodding in agreement about politically correct views of the most controversial issues...
From Publishers Weekly
Sarich, a Berkeley emeritus anthropologist, and Miele, an editor of Skeptic magazine, cannot resist calling the current view that "race does not exist" a "PC dogma." They make cogent, if not convincing, arguments of their case in three areas. Race as a concept, they argue, considerably antedates colonial Europe, presenting such examples as an "Egyptian tomb with four races" (as one caption calls a tomb painting) that may point up "awareness" of difference, but whether that awareness correlates to concepts of "race" as currently defined remains unproven. Several chapters are heavy going on DNA-based research into the origin and differentiation of Homo sapiens, here interpreted as branching off from the other hominids recently enough to make differences among people very minor but, in the authors' view, significant. They move from the Human Genome Project into their final section, in which differences in intelligence are said to correlate to a concept of race (but are not said to be a justification for discrimination). This last argument is predicated on what will seem to many readers an excessive faith in IQ tests. Nevertheless, the book lacks vitriol, other than that needed to fuel the skeptic's attempt to debunk.
From Booklist
Sarich and Miele, both respected academicians, challenge the much-hyped, popular notion of race as an illusion, or mere social construct. Instead, they contend that significant human racial differences exist. Those differences are being increasingly identified and quantified via medical research and law-enforcement techniques, most notably in DNA testing, which has led to convictions and acquittals. Inquiries into the genetic influences behind racial differences in educational achievement and intelligence, despite inflammatory resistance, are justified by cost-benefit analyses, the authors contend. Assessing the future of racial politics in the U.S and internationally, Sarich and Miele offer three scenarios: meritocracy with race-sensitive safety valves (which they prefer), affirmative action or quotas, and rising resegregation and ethnopolitics. This is an important work, despite its conservative inferences, that challenges both the existence and the value of America's obsession with color blindness. Vernon Ford
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