The idea that human races exist is a socially constructed myth that has no grounding in science. Regardless of skin, hair, or eye color, stature or physiognomy, we are all of one species. Nonetheless, scientists, social scientists, and pseudo-scientists have, for three centuries, tried vainly to prove that distinctive and separate "races" of humanity exist. These protagonists of race theory have based their flawed research on one or more of five specious assumptions: - humanity can be classified into groups using identifiable physical characteristics, - human characteristics are transmitted "through the blood," - distinct human physical characteristics are inherited together, - physical features can be linked to human behavior, - human groups or "races" are by their very nature unequal and, therefore, they can be ranked in order of intellectual, moral, and cultural superiority. The Myth of Human Races systematically dispels these fallacies and unravels the web of flawed research that has been woven to demonstrate the superiority of one group of people over another.
AcknowledgmentsA Word to the ReaderIntroductionIntroductionRace is a Slippery WordRace Classification: An Impossible TaskSkulls, Women, and Savages: The Art of CraniologyFull Blood, Half-Blood, and Tainted BloodRacial Traits: More Fiction Than FactYou Cannot Judge a Book by its CoverIntroductionDid We Evolve From Apes, and If So, from How Many?Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Fittest of Us All?Adaptive or not Adaptive, That is the QuestionWhy Different Skin Colors?Why Different Shapes of Noses? Why So Much or So Little Hair on the Body or the Head?Why Different Color of Eye and Hair?Race: Geneticists Led AstrayRace and IQ: A Pseudo-ProblemRace and Disease: Another Pseudo-ProblemHow The U.S. Government Classifies Its Citizens: A Real ProblemIntroductionOf Species and Races: A Modern ViewEach One of Us Is UniqueOf Genes and Chromosomes: No One is Like YouMyths About AncestryOf DNA and Proteins, or No One is Like YouExcept for A Very Few of Us, We Are All ColoredCan We Change Our Skin Color?Nothing Under the Sun Is Just Black or WhiteGenes and Skin Color: The More the MerrierConcluding ThoughtsBibliographyIndex
Alain F. Corcos was coeditor of Gregor Mendel's Experiments on Plant Hybrids (Rutgers). He is Professor Emeritus of Botany at Michigan State University.
