'Intelligence' and Race (was Re: Invention of the white race //

Mathew Forstater forstate at levy.org
Mon Jun 1 09:09:03 PDT 1998


On Sun, 31 May 1998, Carrol Cox wrote:


> This is where it is important to remember what has been definitively
> established, there is no such thing as race: that is, the very concept of
> race belongs to ideology (racist ideology) not to science of any kind. And
> since race does not exist, it is impossible (without circularity) to
> select the population whose "intelligence" is to be measured. Both Stephen
> Gould and Barbara Fields are very good on this.

It is also important to remember that just because something is a social construction and not rooted in "science of any kind" does not mean that something is not real. People are killed, raped, enslaved, and categorized into groups for testing in the name of social constructions all the time. There is a such thing as "race." It has no biological validity, but it is a social reality. Unfortunately, I have seen the "there is no such thing as race" argument used against anti-racist struggles, affirmative action, curriculum reform, etc.

Mat



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list