Myth of the Month 3: Race - a podcast by Samuel Biagetti

We examine the origins of racism, or the notion that the human species can be subdivided into distinct and observable biological categories. The notion of human "races" began as a strategy for dividing and controlling workers in European colonies, particularly 17th-century Virginia. We consider the basic logical incoherence of belief in race as an inherent property, and compare it against the new information that we are gaining from genetics, which shows a fairly closely interrelated human species, with all people living today sharing the same set of ancestors as of about 3,400 years ago. Finally we consider the recent flare-up of controversy over the difference in average IQ between "racial" groups in the US, which neuroscientist Sam Harris helped to spark on his podcast earlier this year.

Please become a patron and contribute what you can in the spirit of knowledge and inquiry, and in order to have access to patron-only lectures, including "Myth of the Month: The Exodus" -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Suggested Further Reading: Barbara Fields, "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the United States of America"; Edmund Morgan, "American Slavery, American Freedom"; Marilyn Lake, "Drawing the Global Color Line"; Nicholas Wade, "A Troublesome Inheritance."

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Website of Samuel Biagetti