Racism and Science

Dorothy Roberts, a professor of law and sociology, told a Cornell University talk, “Scientists invented race as an explanation for social inequality.”

 Roberts said “If you really wanna help black children in Philadelphia get a better education … don’t do research on the gray matter of their brains. Do you really think that’s gonna help these children?” Roberts added that policymakers and “extremists” have “seized” on the notion that there are “biologically-explained differences that underlie social problems” — like, for instance, the theory “that poverty reduces cognitive function in the brains of poor, black children.”

Seemingly fueled by empirical facts, systematically suppressive policies then prevail, Roberts said. “There is a whole system designed to keep black children from succeeding, again and again...What I’ve realized is it’s not so much about … thinking black children are inferior,” she said, “It’s about not wanting to confront white privilege and power.”

In this way, solutions proposed by researchers and policymakers aim toward those affected by the system — often “intervening in the behavior of … victims” or even blaming them on a biological basis, Roberts said. This approach neglects a reform of the system itself, she said. “The black baby in the womb is being harmed by structural racism … not his black mother’s ‘bad behavior’ or genes,” Roberts said.