Racism, Not Race

In this book, two distinguished scientists tackle common misconceptions about race, human biology, and racism. Using an accessible question-and-answer format, Joseph L. Graves Jr. and Alan H. Goodman show readers why antiracist principles are both just and backed by sound science.

Joseph L. Graves Jr. is a professor in the Department of Biology at North Carolina A&T State University. He is a fellow of the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His books include The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium (2001) and The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America (2005).

Alan H. Goodman is a professor of biological anthropology at Hampshire College and a former vice president for academic affairs. He is a past president of the American Anthropological Association and codirects its public education project on race. He is a coauthor of Race: Are We So Different? (second edition, 2019), among other books.

Brings a new angle and an accessible approach to the ongoing reckoning with race in America.

An entertaining and informative read that will serve as a jumping-off point for countless discussions about racism.

Ian Tattersall, author of Troublesome Science: The Misuse of Genetics and Genomics in Understanding Race:
In Racism, Not Race, Graves and Goodman lay out comprehensively and accessibly why notions of race are social constructs that cannot be justified in biological terms. Packed with contemporary and historical references that place race in perspective, this is an authoritative clarification of an issue that is critically important for society but is widely misunderstood despite its ever more pressing ramifications. A valuable resource.

Charmaine DM Royal, director of the Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference:
A timely tapestry of questions and answers on race and racism! Joseph Graves and Alan Goodman have intricately disentangled and woven together biological race, socially defined race, and racism, providing a strategy for addressing not only the consequences of systemic racism but more importantly, the root cause—the ideology of a hierarchy of human value. Brilliant work!

Johnnetta Betsch Cole, author of Racism in American Public Life: A Call to Action:
In this timely and important book, Professors Graves and Goodman provide detailed explanations in response to questions about race and racism. They have also followed the 'Noah principle.' Indeed, it is not enough to simply predict the rain. One must also build arks. And that is what Professors Graves and Goodman have done. They offer concrete steps that can be taken to help to eliminate the scourge of racism, as well as other systems of oppression, that continue to plague our nation.

Ken Burns, filmmaker:
What a timely and thoughtful book, posing in Socratic fashion the central questions of our struggling republic.