Early Thoughts from Superior

2022-03-14

Angela Saini's Superior: The Return of Race Science is a fine read on the history of race science and its guises over the centuries. Perhaps I'll do a proper recap at some point, but here are some stray observations I want to collect:

• Since science is performed by human beings, it is informed by human culture and prejudices, especially when it concerns the questions we ask and how we test them.

• By the above, science cannot occur in platonic isolation; it is inevitably part of a longer conversation about culture and history and values.

• Race science, in particular, seems to emerge from a preoccupation with self and other, i.e. not just who we are but how we relate to them.

There's much more I want to think about and unpack in this book, but this will do for now.