Thinking Race: Social Myths and Biological Realities - Hardcover

Is race a social construction or a biological reality? In this brave and necessary book, Richard Goldsby and Mary Catherine Bateson provide a persuasive response: it is both. Using a wealth of genetic and cultural evidence, Goldsby and Bateson shed light on a question too often dominated by heat, and they explore the implications of their answer for medicine, social policy, and politics. (William A. Galston, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution)

This scholarly, but completely accessible and entertaining, treatise examines what we term “race” providing food for serious thought on several levels. The authors bring expertise from their respective areas of scholarship to bear on this complex topical issue. Their discussion of the intricacies involved, not readily resolved by current DNA analyses or dissection of cultural issues, gives new and thoughtful insight. Having defined race in a reasonable way next are enumerated consequences of racial discrimination along with some suggestions to balance inequity. An open-minded reading of this treatment may require rethinking of common stereotypes and abandoning racist attitudes. (Thomas J. Kindt, author)

This wise book by a distinguished biologist and an acclaimed anthropologist forthrightly, clearly, and concisely summarizes the objective evidence that there are races and racial differences: readers will find some surprising. The authors’ take bears on many ‘hot-button’ issues and provides compelling and reasoned insight into how society and culture, not biology, determines racial inequality. Thinking Race is a must read. (Lydia Villa-Komaroff, independent consultant, Intersections: Science, Business, Diversity; former vice president of research, Northwestern University)

If we are ever to move beyond the racial divisiveness that continues to plaque our nation, we must have courageous conversations about race. Goldsby and Bateson have written an important and engaging book that can enlighten these conversations in the interest of social justice. By explaining the biology of race, and how race is largely socially constructed, the authors help us accept human differences among us at the same time that we understand the power of human unity. (Johnnetta Betsch Cole, President Emerita of Spelman College and Bennett College for Women)

The authors draw upon a wide spectrum of sources and methods in crafting a compelling argument that distinguishes and illustrates the complexities between race as a biological concept and race as a social construct. (Robert Wedgeworth, founding President and CEO of ProLiteracy Worldwide)