ehrenreich on biology

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Rakesh:
>>(for instance, in her Nation article,
>>Barbara suggested that maybe there is a biological basis to racism --
>>fear of difference etc.
>
>If I remember correctly she draws here from Lawrence Hirschfeld who
>attempts to ground race thinking in the hardwiring of our brains to
>think/classify in terms of natural kinds or essence based groups.  Pretty
>darn skeptical of the study (why should the race consciousness of very
>young children so surprise us that we turn to the brain's hardwiring when
>the 'environment' is so suffused with race?). At any rate, I would have to
>know a lot more about the modular theory of the mind that undergirds
>Hirschfeld's argument. And I don't think Ehrenreich and McClintock even
>really suggest the outline of, much less defend,  Hirschfeld's thesis. My
>sense was that they mention it more to show that sociobiology need not be
>racist since EO Wilson was shown to be all wet.

You might exercise the same level of skepticism with regard to claims to
find a biological basis for sexism.

Yoshie