Dr. Evelynn Hammonds' "W.E.B. Du
Bois and the Challenge to Scientific Racism" discusses the correlation between race and
biology in America. For centuries, American scientists and physicians have
attempted to biologically justify racial inequality and the oppression of African
Americans. For instance, physicians in past have used craniometry to prove that
African Americans were intellectually inferior to Caucasians. Craniometry is
the measurement of the cranial features of different human races to determine
personality, intelligence, and criminology. However, modern science has proved
the conclusions of past physicians to be inaccurate. The size and shape of
one's brain has no affect on their intelligence or their ability to exist in
American society. W.E. B. Du Bois, who is arguably the most prominent black intellectual
of his time, conducted the Atlanta University Study in an effort to dismantle
the work of physicians who have tried to biologically justify racism. While Du Bois
received little recognition for this groundbreaking study in his lifetime,
today we credit him for being one of the first black leaders to challenge
biological racism.
Dr. Hammonds' lecture was quite informative.
I was unaware of the lengths that individuals would go to in order to justify
racism and oppression. After studying the history of America, students learn of
the shameful and often disgusting practices of America's past. Some of these
practices were so demoralizing that the effects of them are still evident in
American culture today. Even today, every now and then, a magazine or newspaper
will attempt to attribute an ethnicity's problems to their biological makeup. While
it is evident that we all look different, it is important that we view race as
a social construction. It is the social construction of race that still plagues
our society, not our biological differences.
WC:
294
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