Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions - Joseph L. Graves Jr. and Alan H. Goodman

Published in 2022 by Columbia University Press, New York, NY

320 pages

ISBN: 9780231200660

For the past several years, race and racism have come to the forefront of the national discourse in the United States. Whether our news feeds are filled with protesters marching under the banner of Black Lives Matter (BLM) or conservative pundits decrying the supposed institution of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public education, there is a lot of conversation regarding the role of race and racism in American society. There is also much confusion as to what exactly we mean when we talk about race. Without even thinking, most of us talk about racial categories as if they were really, immutable categories. These everyday ways of discussing race ultimately serve to reify race as a biological category, further entrenching race as a “real” category and obscuring acts and institutions of racism (as Barbara and Karen Fields so aptly describe in their book, Racecraft). 

Yet, where do these claims of biological racism come from? If there are genetic differences between people of different racial categories? Are people of certain races more susceptible to some diseases when compared to other races? In their 2022 book, Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, biologist Joseph Graves Jr. and biological anthropologist Alan Goodman utilize a wide range of data from biology, genetics, medicine, and sociology to debunk the idea that race is based on biological difference. Through a series of questions and answers, Graves and Goodman show the science behind genetic diversity, and how these differences do not track along racial lines. 

Overview:

Organized in a question-and-answer format, Racism, Not Race dives into the history and science of race and racism to teach “three important lessons: 1. Racism created the idea of race. 2. The idea of race has real effects. It gives cover to racism. 3. Human genetic variation is real (and quite wonderful) and is absolutely not the same as race” (xviii). Once these lessons are understood, they write, “we can dispel many myths about race associated with, for example, health, athletic ability, and intelligence, and present a path for living in a more just and equitable world” (xix). Graves and Goodman show that, far from innate traits of different races, the differences that we see in deaths from diseases, incarceration rates, and income inequality are largely attributed to environmental factors (such as lack of access to healthcare, environmental racism, and poverty). Thus, racism is not merely reduced to an individual’s action, but also encompasses larger systemic, institutionalized inequalities that are deeply embedded in our legal systems and political policies. 

Graves and Goodman answer a wide array of questions throughout the book, and as such cover a wide range of academic topics. In the section, Graves and Goodman address the historical basis behind the invention of race, in which 18th and 19th-century scientists (such as Linnaeus and Blumenbach) turned the folk idea of race into a “scientific” concept to justify racist acts (namely, colonialism and slavery). They then dive into the fields of anthropology and biology, as they use migration and genetic mutation to explain the slight genetic differences between different populations. 

Graves and Goodman also disentangle concepts that commonly get confused with one another, such as ancestry (divided into three types: cultural ancestry, geographic ancestry, and genetic ancestry) and race. They show that there is often a greater genetic variation within a certain population than between two different populations. Due to the relatively young age of the species, humans have relatively little genetic variation, and the small differences that do exist can be attributed to genetic drift and geographical distance. Skin color “fails to predict almost anything save the color of one’s eyes and hair. This is because traits are largely inherent independently” (240). 

After debunking the biological basis of race, Graves and Goodman then dive into sociological and medical data to show how race, although not real, has had real effects that have impacted the health and material conditions of those who are subject to racism. These health outcomes have traditionally been attributed to biological differences, and Graves and Goodman show that it is institutional racism, not race, that explains these inequalities. By exploring incarceration data, wealth distribution, police brutality, climate change data, and educational outcomes, Graves and Goodman address the social costs of treating race as a real and immutable category, rather than what it is: a mirage that serves as a justification for the continual survival of systemic racism. As such, they end the book by suggesting institutional policy reforms that could be implemented to address these inequalities. 

Commendations:

By formatting their book into a question and answer format, Graves and Goodman provide a handy guide for those who might have questions about the history, sociology, and biological fiction of race. They consistently make the case that race is a social category that is continually reified through acts of racism, and their approach of utilizing hard science to back up their claims makes their argument all the more convincing. Graves and Goodman cover a wide array of topics in their analysis of race and racism in America, and are excruciatingly thorough, especially in their chapters on biology and anthropology. 

These scientifically-grounded chapters play to the authors' strengths, and their chapters on the health effects and other enduring legacies of racism are also important and well-argued. Graves and Goodman are thorough in their systematic deconstruction of the myth of race, and how racial categories have given rise to a vast amount of inequality in American society. They thoroughly debunk the biological basis of race, instead placing it as a wholly social construct that continues to have real effects in the world. 

Critique:

On the other hand, while Graves and Goodman are exceedingly thorough in their presentation of biological and sociological data, their writing style is often overly dry. When they write about racism in America and the unreality of race, Graves and Goodman are clear and concise. When they venture into science, however, their efforts at being technical and precise in their presentation of the data, unfortunately, come at the cost of understandability. There is so much scientific jargon and technical language employed throughout most of the more scientific chapters, which will undoubtedly be alienating to all but the most dedicated and scientifically literate reader.

To be fair, they try to remedy this by including personal anecdotes, yet most pages end up reading more like a textbook. While the question and answer format could have also potentially helped to alleviate this, it ended up making the text remarkably repetitive and tedious. This is further exacerbated by the numerous typos and grammatical errors throughout the text, which could have been caught by another thorough pass by an editor. Ultimately, these aspects make the book difficult to recommend to the average reader who is curious about the scientific dimensions of race and racism, as their eyes will most likely glaze over in boredom due to the repetition. 

Additionally, when Graves and Goodman venture into territory beyond their scientific expertise and into the realm of public policy, their pronouncements become much less rigorous. It’s difficult to tell what angle they are coming from because while they on one hand advocate for wealth redistribution, universal healthcare, and support the Green New Deal, other solutions they propose are much more puzzling, such as “all campaign ads on television and the internet must be rigorously fact-checked by independent entities before airing,” or “ongoing diversity training must be required within all ranks of the police” (229). 

While they admit that these are just small steps to making an anti-racist society, many of their proposals seem to neatly fit within the Democratic Party platform and are thus temporary Band-Aids on the larger problem of neoliberal capitalism. Indeed, the authors repeatedly speak approvingly of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hilary Clinton, and much of the rest of the Democratic establishment, which further erodes the trust that any progressive reader might have in the inadequacies of their policy proposals. 

Furthermore, the authors also approvingly cite anti-racist writers such as Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, and The 1619 Project multiple times throughout this book, which is a rather bizarre move to make since these authors tend to biologize, rather than historicize, race in much of their writing. To cite these less-than-stellar scholars rather than more credible sociologists of race and racism in America (such as Du Bois, Adolf Reed Jr, or the Fields sisters) further shows that the authors are a bit out of their depth when it comes to the sociological aspects of their argument. This is not even to mention that the crux of their argument (that race is a fiction created by acts of racism, which are then utilized to further reify race as a biological category to justify racism) is much more rigorously argued from a sociological perspective by Barbara and Karen Fields’ Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life). As such, while Goodman and Graves’ thesis is not novel, it still contributes to the discourse by foreclosing any biological basis for the existence of race. Therefore, this book is still a valuable and useful volume. 

Conclusion:

Overall, Racism, Not Race is a useful, if scientifically dense work that serves as an important intervention in the current discourse about race and racism in America. While some of the chapters might be too inaccessible to nearly all but the most scientifically-literate readers, its question-and-answer format makes this book useful as a reference when one is faced with a particular question about race and racism. Graves and Goodman are well-versed in biology and anthropology, and they do their best to clearly explain complex subjects, even though it often remains quite technical and dense.  

As such, since it is not the most riveting book when read cover to cover, it is better suited for intermittent reading, as it gives readers an entry point into answering common questions about race and racism in America. In a historical moment when the effects of racism in America are often obfuscated by ideological smokescreens, Racism, Not Race does a commendable job in offering some clarity and insight, helping us to see how we often misunderstand the concept of race. As such, this book serves as an important contribution to the discourse around race and racism, as it debunks our common misconceptions and challenges us to build a more equitable society.